INS and type 2 diabetes mellitus: Moreover, in addition to other epidemiological studies, we also showed positive associations of ferritin and sTfR with fasting glucose, insulin and HOMA-IR, but not with HOMA-BCF, suggesting that the contribution of iron metabolism to type 2 diabetes mellitus is basically related to the induction of insulin resistance more than through an effect on beta-cell function [3], [15].