KDR and diabetes mellitus: Finally, our finding that rBDNF was capable of rescuing the loss of TrkB siRNA transfected rMC1 cells under diabetic conditions (Figure 3F) suggests that the diabetes-accelerated reduction of BDNF is likely a contributing factor for the loss of MCs in MC-specific VEGFR2 knockout mice, eventually resulting in more neuronal degeneration [27].