According to MALDI-TOF identification, the proteins that were more highly expressed in normal patients with abdominal obesity (Group 2), prediabetes (Groups 3 and 4), and diabetes (Groups 5 and 6) than in normal patients without abdominal obesity (Group 1) included serpin peptidase inhibitor A1 (AAT/SERPINA1), haptoglobin protein (HP), zinc-alpha2-glycoprotein (ZAG), apolipoprotein A-1 (APOA1), and retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4) (Table 2). The gene discussed is APOA1; the disease is diabetes mellitus.