Objective To investigate the clinical application of alpha lipoic acid on early diabetic nephropathy(DN).Methods Seventy patients with early diabetic nephropathy were randomly divided into two groups.Patients in control group were treated with regular glycemic control methods,while patients in treatment group were received alpha lipoic acid 300 mg static drop treatment for two weeks beside regular treatment.High sensitivity C reaction protein,microalbuminuria and urine creatinine were measured before and after the treatment.Microalbuminuria and urine creatinine were re-measured three months later.Results At the end of two weeks treatment,the levels of high sensitivity C reaction protein in the treatment group decreased from (3.92 ± 4.56) mg/L to (2.24 ± 2.49) mg/L,and there was significant difference (t =2.803,P ＜ 0.05).Microalbuminuria decreased from (127.18 ± 76.91) mg/L to (84.50 ± 122.87) mg/L,and there was significant difference (t =2.501,P ＜ 0.05).The ratio of microalbuminuria and urine creatinine in treatment group decreased from(28.95 ± 30.49) mg/mmol to(13.76 ± 20.83) mg/mmol,and there was significant difference (t =3.616,P ＜ 0.05).While there was no significant difference in the control group before and after regular waglycemic control.At three months after treatment,there were no significant difference regarding of microalbuminuria,the ratio of microalbuminuria and urine creatinine between treatment and control groups (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion Alpha lipoic acid might be with ability of decreasing the levels of microalbuminuria of diabetic nephropathy in the short term,but further study is needed to verify whether alpha lipoic acid can decrease the level of microalbuminuria in the long term.