TNF and type 2 diabetes mellitus: However, van Beek et al. [47] argued that the increased inflammatory state (they found no differences in CRP and TNF-α, but higher IL-6 levels in MO with type 2 diabetes as compared with MHMO) could be explained by differences in adipose tissue mass or fat distribution, as they observed that the adipocyte sizes were not significantly different between the two groups.