HHIP and diabetes mellitus: Moreover, a genome-wide diabetes profiling database (http://diabetes.wisc.edu) revealed that compared to lean animals, Hhip mRNA was markedly elevated in the islets of diabetic ob/ob mice (at the age of 4 and 10 weeks with both C57BL/6 and BTBR backgrounds), but not in other tissues such as liver, gastrocnemius and soleus muscles, adipose tissue and hypothalamus, underscoring the specificity of Hhip expression in murine T2D islets.