Chronic complications of diabetes are mainly macrovascular disease and microvascular disease

in which microvascular disease is a diabetic-specific complication

with microcirculation disturbance and microvascular basement membrane thickening as the typical lesions. Specifically

heart microvascular disease and myocardial metabolic disorders can cause extensive myocardial necrosis

which is known as diabetic cardiomyopathy. The pathogenesis of diabetic cardiomyopathy is very complex

involving many aspects

including myocardial fibrosis

myocardial glucose and lipid metabolism

oxidative stress

cytokine abnormalities

insulin resistance

mitogen-activated protein kinase (AMPK) protein kinase and its associated protease signaling pathway

mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway

and NF-E2-related factor 2-antioxidant response element (Nrf2-ARE) signaling pathway. Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) doctors mainly consider in the aspects of activating blood and unblocking collaterals

and focus on single herb and TCM compounds. A large number of animal experiments and clinical data show that TCMs have a good effect in the treatment of this disease. It is a very meaningful to bring TCM's characteristic of treatment based on syndrome differentiation

deeply dig Chinese herbal medicine resources

and apply its characteristics of composition and multiple dosage forms in the treatment of diabetic cardiomyopathy. This article reviews the pathogenesis of diabetic cardiomyopathy and the studies for prevention and treatment of TCM

and provides a reference for clinical prevention and treatment of this disease.