For instance, dosing animals 4-phenyl butyrate (PBA) to protect against ER stress has a strong glucose-lowering effect even under basal conditions (Ozcan et al., 2006) Overexpression of BiP in β-cells has been shown to protect against apoptosis and diabetes progression in db/db mice (Laybutt et al., 2007), and it would be interesting to examine the effects of chronic SD in this model. The gene discussed is HSPA5; the disease is diabetes mellitus.