Subclinical chronic inflammation is a hallmark of T2D and is evidenced by elevation in acute phase proteins such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) (Festa et al., 2006), and inflammatory cytokines such as tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1) and interleukin (IL)-6 (Kahn et al., 2014; Khodabandeloo et al., 2015). Here, TNF is linked to type 2 diabetes mellitus.