BNIP3 and ischemia: Previous studies of UCCAO mouse models have indicated the upregulation of inflammatory chemokines (Ccl2 and Ccl12) [20,24,26] as well as ischemia-related genes (Bnip3, Hsp25, and Vegfa) [20,26,43] in the retina, and we found similar results with the STZ UCCAO mice.