Objective To study the therapeutic effect of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass （RYGB） on type 2 diabetes mellitus （T2DM） rats and explore the possible mechanism of vaspin in RYGB on T2DM. Methods Twenty SD rats with T2DM and 20 age- and sex-matched normal SD rats were randomly divided into 4 groups according to the random digits table：T2DM-RYGB group， T2DM-sham operation （SO） group，RYGB group，and SO group，10 rats in each group. Fasting plasma glucose （FPG） level，serum insulin （INS） level，vaspin level，and homeostasis model of insulin resistance （HOMA-IR） were determined before operation and on week 4，8 after operation，respectively．At the same time，the correlation between vaspin and the indicators （FPG，INS，or HOMA-IR） was analyzed．Results Compared the indicators after operation with before operation，the FPG level，INS level，vaspin level，and HOMA-IR were not significantly different between the T2DM-RYGB group and T2DM-SO group （P＞0.05） or between the RYGB group and SO group （P＞0.05），but the FPG level，INS level，vaspin level，and HOMA-IR in the T2DM-RYGB group and T2DM-SO group were significantly higher than those in the RYGB group （P＜0.05） and SO group （P＜0.05），respectively. On week 4 after operation，the FPG level，INS level，vaspin level，and HOMA-IR decreased in the T2DM-RYGB group，except for the FPG level，the other indexes had no significant differences as compared with the values before operation. On week 8 after operation，the FPG level，INS level，vaspin level，and HOMA-IR further decreased in the T2DM-RYGB group，there were significant differences of these indicators between before operation and on week 8 after operation. Compared the indicators after operation with before operation，the FPG level，INS level，vaspin level，and HOMA-IR were not statistically significant （P＞0.05） in the T2DM-SO group，RYGB group，or SO group. The changes in serum vaspin level correlated positively with those in INS and HOMA-IR before operaion and on week 4，8 after operaion in the T2DM-RYGB group and T2DM SO group rats （P＜0.05），respectively. Conclusions RYGB surgery has a therapeutic effect on T2DM rats，and serum vaspin level decreases and insulin resistance is improved after RYGB surgery，which may be one of the mechanisms of the treatment for T2DM.