These findings suggest that phosphorylation of RSOR/MIOX enhances its activity, which is augmented by HG via transcriptional/translational events that are also modulated by diabetes-related pathobiological stresses.Diabetic nephropathy in man is characterized by thickening of basement membranes, mesangial expansion with progression to glomerulosclerosis, tubular atrophy, and interstitial fibrosis, resulting ultimately in renal failure (1-3). A number of mechanisms, involving a complex array of glucose-metabolizing enzymes and various signaling molecules, have been proposed for the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy (4 -12). One of the molecules whose homeostasis is well known to be adversely affected in diabetic neuropathy is myo-inositol (MI) 2 (13, 14); however, its pathogenetic role in diabetic nephropathy is unclear. MI is an essential molecule distributed ubiquitously, and it plays a vital role in signal transduction and osmoregulation, the latter process due to MI having been endowed with unique properties as an organic osmolyte or polyol (15, 16). As MI is also responsible for phosphoinositide signaling, it would be critical for cellular activity and is likely to have a high turnover rate, and thus its regular supplementation would be necessary to maintain various normal physiological processes (17, 18). The major sources by which it could be derived include dietary uptake, cyclic turnover from phosphoinositide signaling pathway, and de novo synthesis from glucose (19,20), the latter process confined mainly to kidney, brain, liver, and testis. Overall, it seems that MI homeostasis is maintained by a combination of transport, synthesis, and its catabolism. In diabetes, excessive urinary excretion of MI suggests its deranged homeostasis, which in part may be due to the fact that high extracellular glucose inhibits the cellular uptake of MI by compromising its tubular reabsorption (21,22). On the other hand, high glucose generates excessive intracellular sorbitol via the polyol pathway, which also interferes in the uptake of MI and causes its depletion (15,21,22). Besides sorbitol-induced MI depletion and inhibition of cellular MI uptake, there may be further accentuation of MI deficiency related to its catabolism, which is regulated by an enzyme known as myo-inositol oxygenase (MIOX) (23,24). It catabolizes MI to D-glucuronate, which enters into the pentose phosphate pathway following the interconversion of glucuronate to xylulose (25). Conceivably, this catabolic pathway is extensively utilized by the kidney because