KDR and diabetes mellitus: Thus, capillary rarefaction and tissue hypoxia due to progressive experimental glomerular injury [40], in the remnant kidney model [41], in rats with streptozotozin-induced diabetes [42] or in the model of hindlimb ischemia [43] fail to induce an angiogenic response in animals with CKD, i.e. upregulation of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) and its receptor VEGF-R, whereas administration of VEGF-A resulted in improved renal function and lower mortality rates in experimental animals [41].