Furthermore, activation of NF-kB elevates IL-1β, and IL-1β plays an important role in retinal capillary cell death and the formation of acellular capillaries, the microvascular pathology that is characteristic of retinopathy in diabetes, and the antioxidants, which inhibit the development of diabetic retinopathy in rodent models, also inhibit diabetes-induced increases in retinal IL-1β [17,31,46]. The gene discussed is NFKB1; the disease is diabetes mellitus.