These findings are in agreement with three studies that have reported positive associations of HMGB1 with coronary artery disease [3, 4], heart failure [5] and mortality related to heart disease [5] in patients with and without type 2 diabetes, though these were limited by their cross-sectional study design [3–5] or short follow-up period [5]. Here, HMGB1 is linked to type 2 diabetes mellitus.