VEGFA and diabetic kidney disease: VEGF-A is a survival factor for all glomerular cell types and stimulates endothelial and mesangial cell proliferation (Tsurumi et al., 1997; Feliers et al., 2005; Guan et al., 2006; Lee et al., 2007), and thereby mediates glomerular hypertrophy and angiogenesis in DKD (Farquhar et al., 1959; Stout et al., 1993; Flyvbjerg et al., 2002; Veron et al., 2010; Veron et al., 2011; Tufro and Veron, 2012).