Upregulation of GFAP occurs in response to hyperglycemia (Barber et al., 2000; Gerhardinger et al., 2005; Lieth et al., 1998; Mizutani et al., 1998) as well as other retinal insults, including light damage (Grosche et al., 1995), photoreceptor degeneration (DiLorento et al., 1995; Lewis et al., 1995) and retinal detachment (Lewis et al., 1995). Here, GFAP is linked to retinal detachment.