Diabetes is a lifelong disease characterized by glucose metabolic imbalance, in which low insulin levels or impaired insulin signaling lead to hyperglycemic state. Within 20 years of diabetes progression, 95% of pa-tients will have diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of visual defects in working-age people worldwide. Although diabetes is considered a microvascular disease, recent studies have shown that neurodegeneration precedes vascular changes within the diabetic visual system, albeit its mechanisms are still under investi-gation. Neuroinflammation and oxidative stress are intrinsically related phenomena, since macrophage/microglia and astrocytes are the main sources of reactive oxygen species during central nervous system chronic degenerative diseases, and both pathological processes are increased in the visual system during di-abetes. The present review will focus on recent findings of the contribution of oxidative stress derived from neuroinflammation in the early neurodegenerative aspects of the diabetic visual system and their relation-ship with galectin-3.