Background: Diabetic retinopathy is one of the common microvascular complications of diabetes. The formation of advanced glycation end products (AGE) exerts deleterious effects by acting directly to induce cross-linking of proteins promoting vascular damage. Hyperglycemia causes disturbance in glycogenesis pathway resulting in reduction of glucose to sorbitol which is converted to fructose by sorbitol dehydrogenase. Methods: The levels of advanced glycation end products (AGE), lipid profile, and glycosylated Hb were estimated in 266 type I diabetic patients without retinopathy, patients with nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR), and proliferative diabetic retinopathy patients (PDR).The association between genotypes of two polymorphisms of sorbitol dehydrogenase gene (SDH) was estimated in the promoter region: a C/G transversion located at _1214 position and a G/C transversion at _888 position. This study showed allele-specific PCR for C-1214G polymorphism and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) technique for a G/C transversion at _ 888 position. Results: Significant increase was detected in glycosylated Hb levels in diabetic group, both with retinopathy and without retinopathy. Also, a significant increase in Hb1c in PDR group compared to NPDR. Significant increase in total cholesterol, HDL, TG, and AGE in PDR group compared to the group without retinopathy. No significant change was observed in the same parameter between PDR and NPDR group. Significant increase in AGE in both PDR and NPDR group compared to the group without retinopathy. No significant change in PDR group compared to NPDR. The results of this study showed no significant difference in genotype distribution (C/C, C/G, G/G) of the C˗1214G polymorphism between the two groups of patients with and without DR A2-. There was no statistically significant difference between the three genotypes (CC, CG, and GG) of the C˗1214G polymorphism in relation to DR severity in male genders. However, there was a statistically significant difference in female gender with increased frequency of CC genotype (2.7%, 21.9%, and 23.7%). There was no significant difference in genotype distribution (C/C, G/C, and G/G) of the G˗888C polymorphism between the two groups of patients with DR and without DR. However, the CC genotype occurred more frequently in patients with DR than patients without DR (6.7% vs. 3.9%), and G/G genotype occurred more frequently in