CCN2 and diabetes mellitus: In our study, we showed the increased expressions of TNF-α and MCP-1 (Figure 4), as inflammation markers, in the aorta of the WT DM group, which was accompanied with increased expressions of markers of aortic fibrosis (CTGF, TGF-β1) (Figure 2), apoptosis (caspase-3) (Figure 3), and oxidative stress (3-NT, 4-HNE) (Figure 5) in the WT DM group.