IL7R and type 1 diabetes mellitus: Since SPARC is a widely expressed profibrotic protein that modulates tissue physiology by altering cell-extracellular matrix interactions, it has the potential to mediate microglia cell proliferation and migration. IL-7r was studied in a Spanish cohort of patients with type 1 diabetes and the homozygous IL-7r allele rs1445898 showed a trend towards a protective effect based on the genotype and an association to early onset diabetes [133].