The digital holography is characterized by its full field of view, non-contact, non-destructive, real-time and quantitative detection, which is especially suitable for the three-dimensional reconstruction and fast tracking of living cells without staining or labeling. The digital holography imaging has been developed rapidly in the field of the biomedical science. The basic principle of digital holography is introduced for the cell detection, and the major progress of the research and application is reviewed based on the cell morphology, biological parameters, physiological status, drug effect and dynamic analysis. The potential application and future research are discussed, and the challenge and problems of digital holography technology are pointed out.