CD147 is a member of the immunoglobulin super family, which can be highly expressed in inflammatory tissues and has a pro-inflammatory effect. Atherosclerosis is well known as a chronic inflammatory disease, and the mechanism of high expression of CD147 promoting atherosclerosis has been confirmed by a large number of studies. Understanding how CD147 promotes the occurrence and development of atherosclerosis can provide new ideas for the prevention and treatment of this disease. At the same time, a large number of compounds have been proved to be able to downregulate CD147 to have anti-atherosclerosis effect, which also provides a direction for drug design targeting CD147 in the future. This article reviews the mechanism of atherosclerosis induced by CD147 and the research progress of compounds that downregulate CD147.