STAT1 and diabetes mellitus: Besides these limitations, the novelty of the present study resides on the use of a relatively simple in vitro model that when simultaneously exposed to hyperglycemia and hypoxia, but not exposed separately to either condition, show functional alterations that reproduce important changes induced by diabetes at the renal level in: i) the expression of glucose metabolizing enzymes ii) STAT1 and HSPs and iii) cytoskeletal-related proteins.