IL1R1 and diabetes mellitus: We have previously shown that diabetes leads to the activation of caspase-1 and IL-1β production and that blocking downstream caspase-1/IL-1β/IL-1R1 signaling using IL-1R1 knockout mice prevented the formation of acellular capillaries and Müller cell death (Vincent and Mohr, 2007; Mohr and Vincent, 2005).