Diabetic LEC treated with 5 μmol/l zebularine showed substantially decreased 5-methylcytosine (Fig. 5a) and significantly (40.9%) reduced DNMT1 levels (p<0.05; Fig. 5b), like the DNMT1 depletion reported previously for human bladder cancer cells [21], indicating effective DNA demethylation. Here, DNMT1 is linked to urinary bladder cancer.