SPON2 and type 2 diabetes mellitus: The present study is the first to demonstrate that saxagliptin treatment can prevent podocyte EMT in HFD/STZ-induced T2DM rats, as evidenced by decreased excretion of microalbumin and the urinary podocyte injury marker mindin (Murakoshi et al., 2011) beyond its anti-hyperglycemic effect (Uchii et al., 2016) as well as significantly suppressed renal oxidative stress.