Objective To observe the amount of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) at different stages of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods Sixty patients with type 2 DM were divided into no DR (NDR) group, non-proliferative DR (NPDR)group and proliferative DR (PDR)group according to the examination of fundus and fundus fluorescein angiography, 20 patients in each group. Twenty healthy people were collected as the control group. 6 ml blood samples were taken from all the subjects, and then the EPCs contents in peripheral blood were detected by flow cytometry. Results The EPCs contents in peripheral blood of the control, NDR, NPDR and PDR group were (0.0179plusmn;0.0047)%, (0.0151plusmn;0.0086)%, (0.0123plusmn;0.1137)%, (0.0316plusmn;0.0 294)%. The EPCs contents in peripheral blood of the PDR group was significantly higher than those in others (chi;2=43.780, P＜0.05); the EPCs contents in peripheral blood of the NDR and NPDR group were slightly lower than that in the control group (chi;2=5.244, P=0.73); the EPCs contents in peripheral blood of the NPDR group was lower than that in the NDR group (chi;2=6.016, P=0.12). Conclusion The EPCs contents in peripheral blood decreases in NDR, NPDR patients, while significantly increases in PDR patients.