Diabetes mellitus (DM) complicated with atherosclerosis (AS) is the most common cause of amputation and death in patients with type 2 DM due to the instability of plaque, severe ischemia and the high rate of restenosis after treatment. It is important to reduce the diabetic vascular complications in those patients. Establishment of animal models of severe diabetic vasculopathy will provide an experimental basis for further studies on those complications. In this paper, we will firstly discuss the mechanism of the development of severe diabetic vasculopathy and then review the methods referring to the establishment of this kind of animal models worldwide.