AKT1 and diabetes mellitus: Studies from the same group on the underlying mechanisms, identified that EGFR1/HER1 did not act alone, rather heterodimerization with ErbB2 (its preferred dimerization partner) and subsequently signaling via multiple pathways including PI3K/AKT were key mediators of diabetes-induced vascular complications (Akhtar et al., 2013; Akhtar et al., 2015).