CX3CR1 and diabetic retinopathy: Activated microglia can secrete pro-inflammatory cytokines like Il1β (Patterson, 2015), and loss of Cx3cr1 has been shown to elevate levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine Il1β (Cardona et al., 2006) In diabetic retinopathy, only a few genes associated with inflammation are significantly upregulated in Cx3cr1 knockout retina, including Il1β (Cardona et al., 2015).