TNF and type 2 diabetes mellitus: Concordant with previous studies, there were significantly elevated TNF-α levels in MHO (median, 18.15 pg/mL; range, 10.08–49.81 pg/mL; *P<0.01) and T2D patients (median, 46.98 pg/mL; range, 11.07–118.1 pg/mL; *P<0.0001) as compared with CTLs (median, 5.28 pg/mL; range, lower limit to 23.36 pg/mL).