Renal fibrosis is one of the main pathogenesis of diabetic kidney disease. Human antigen R (HuR) is associated with tubularepithelial mesenchymal transition. It has been confirmed that the expression of HuR is increased in the kidney tissue of diabetic nephropathy patients, but the difference of HuR expression in patients with different renal pathological stages is unclear.Methods: A total of 165 DKD patients diagnosed by renal biopsy admitted to the first affiliated hospital of Nanjing medical university from January 2014 toMay 2019 were enrolled.The expression of HuR was detected by immunohistochemistry. The comparison of HuR expression was tested by nonparametric test. Spearman’s rank correlation was performed for correlation analysis between HuR levels and clinical factors.Results: The expression of HuR was increased in the kidney, mainly in the nucleus of tubular epithelial cells. There were significant differences between diabetic nephropathy stage IIb and stage III, stage IIb and stage IV, stage III and stage IV (P< 0.001), Wheareas no difference between stage IIa and stage IIb was observed. HuR expression is positively correlated with age, serum creatinine, urea nitrogen, serum uric acid, C-reactive protein and PTH, and negatively correlated with eGFR, hemoglobin, glycosylated hemoglobin and 25-OH-vitamin D.Conclusion: The expression of HuR is positive related to the severityof pathological stages（IIb，III，IV）. The expression of HuR was correlated with clinical indicators of renal function.