GFAP and diabetes mellitus: Twenty-five weeks after diabetes onset, qPCR and Western blot demonstrated that, in comparison with SD rats, untreated SDT rats showed increased GFAP expression (Figures 8(a) and 8(b)) presumably coupled to gliotic Müller cells together with increased retinal levels of caspase-3 (Figures 8(c) and 8(d)), a reliable marker of apoptosis-induced retinal neurodegeneration [15].