To explore the expression of Rho-associated coiled-coil-forming protein kinase 2 (ROCK2) in the anterior lens capsule of age-related cataract (ARC), and its effect on the autophagy and oxidative damage of human lens epithelial cells induced by H2O2. Methods The anterior capsule of ARC patients and normal lens were collected, and the expression of ROCK2 protein was detected by immunohistochemical staining and Western blot; Human lens epithelial cells HLE-B3 were randomly divided into control group, H2O2 group, sh-NC+H2O2 group and sh-ROCK2+H2O2 group, transfected sh-NC or sh-ROCK2 to the corresponding group of cells, and treated the cells with H2O2, Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR and Western blot detected the cell transfection efficiency, MTT method detected the cell proliferation activity of each treatment group, transmission electron microscopy observed the phenomenon of autophagy in cells; After autophagy double-labeled adenovirus mRFP-GFP-LC3 was transfected into cells, autophagolysosome and autophagosome levels were observed, Western blot detected the expression of autophagy-related proteins in cells, DCFH-DA method detected the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the kit measured the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and the content of malondialdehyde (MDA). Results Compared with normal tissues, the expression of ROCK2 in ARC was increased (P＜0.05). After transfection with sh-ROCK2, the expression level of ROCK2 in HLE-B3 cells was successfully down-regulated (P＜0.05). Compared with the control group, after H2O2 treatment of cells, cell proliferation activity decreased significantly, autophagosomes increased significantly, autophagolysosome and autophagosome levels were obviously activated, and the relative expression of Beclin-1 protein increased significantly, the ratio of LC3-II/LC3-I was significantly increased, the level of ROS was significantly increased, the activities of SOD and GSH-Px were significantly reduced, and the content of MDA was significantly increased (P＜0.05). Compared with the H2O2 group, the cells were transfected with sh-ROCK2 and then treated with H2O2, the cell proliferation activity was significantly increased, the autophagosomes were reduced, the levels of autophagolysosomes and autophagosomes were inhibited, the relative expression of Beclin-1 protein was significantly reduced, the ratio of LC3-II/LC3-I was significantly down-regulated. At the same time, the intracellular ROS level was significantly decreased, the activities of SOD and GSH-Px were both significantly increased, and the MDA content was significantly decreased (P＜0.05). Conclusion ROCK2 is highly expressed in the anterior capsule of ARC lens, down-regulating its expression can inhibit H2O2-induced excessive autophagy in human lens epithelial cells and reduce oxidative damage