HMGB1 and diabetes mellitus: However, after adjustments for age, sex, duration of diabetes, case–control status, HbA1c, BMI, smoking status, total cholesterol, mean arterial pressure (MAP) and use of medication, their baseline levels of HMGB1 were indeed increased such that higher levels of HMGB1 (loge-transformed) were associated with a higher incidence of fatal and non-fatal CVD (HR 1.55 [95% CI 0.96, 2.51]) and all-cause mortality (HR 1.86 [95% CI 1.18, 2.93]) (Table 1, model 5, Fig. 1a, b).