VEGFA and Hyperglycemia: In addition, Zong et al.'s study [40] demonstrated that RAGE plays an essential role in retinal neurodegeneration induced by diabetes and that early induction of RAGE expression by hyperglycemia in retinal Müller cells contributes to the increased levels of proinflammatory cytokines, including VEGF (a crucial downstream growth factor in angiogenesis) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), both in vivo and in vitro.