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Diabetes is a metabolic disorder primar-ily characterized by elevated blood glucose levels and by microvascular and cardiovascular complications that substantially increase the morbidity and mortality associated with the disease and reduce the quality of life. Type 1 diabetes is characterized by total reliance on exogenous insulin for survival and comprises~ 10% of all cases of diabetes. The more prevalent form of diabetes, called type 2, comprising 90% of all people with diabetes, is characterized by insulin deficiency and/or insulin resistance. An association between the complications of diabetes and elevated blood glucose levels was postulated in the early part of this century. However, only in the last 3 decades has a substantial body of animal experimental studies and human observational studies and clinical trials directly linked hyperglycemia with the development of diabetic complications (1). Some of these …