Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a major debilitat-ing complication of both type 1 and type 2 dia-betes that progresses to end-stage renal dis-ease [1]. Persistent microalbuminuria is widelyused as a biomarker of early DN, which indi-cates a progressive decline in renal function[2]. Podocytes are terminally differentiated ce-lls that are unable to proliferate [3], and whichform the glomerular filtration barrier, togetherwith endothelial cells and the glomerular base-ment membrane [4]. Previous research hasshown that podocyte apoptosis is associatedwith decreased expression of podocin, nephrin,and slit-associated proteins [5], resulting inmassive proteinuria in DN [6]. Therefore, it iscritical to further explore podocyte-based ther-apies that can prevent or cure DN in the earlystages.