SERPINE1 and diabetic kidney disease: Pioglitazone, a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) agonist, has been shown to slow diabetic nephropathy by downregulating various pro-inflammatory and profibrotic genes, such as NFkB, CCL2, TGF-β1, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), etc. (Ko et al., 2008b).