Evidence by Li et al. demonstrated the existence of this phenomenon in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice, a type 1 diabetic model [34], whilst a 2017 paper by Shang et al. extended this process to human samples by showing that nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-containing protein 2 (NOD2) promotes EndoMT in DN biopsy tissue contributing to renal fibrosis [35]. This evidence concerns the gene NOD2 and renal fibrosis.