Interestingly, icariin dose-dependently attenuated the progression of DN, as exhibited by decreased weight loss (Figure 3A) and inhibited the increase in water (Figure 3C), food intake (Figure 3B) and blood pressure (Figure 3G), but no significant changes in blood glucose (Figure 3D), fasting insulin level (Figure 3E) and insulin sensitivity index (Figure 3F) were observed in the different groups, which suggested that the improvement of diabetes symptoms by oral icariin was probably independent of glycemic control. The gene discussed is INS; the disease is diabetes mellitus.