Diabetic neuropathy, in which the subjects may also be affected with an additional nerve compression disorder, is probably a continuous ongoing event, particularly in type 1 diabetes, which leads to ongoing and permanent apoptotic and neuroprotective mechanisms with leakage of the biomarkers caspase-3, caspase-8 and HSP27 into plasma. This evidence concerns the gene CASP8 and type 1 diabetes mellitus.