POMC and type 2 diabetes mellitus: We found that, compared with the matched CTRL group, the POMC-ir neurons and the area covered by POMC-ir were significantly lower in the T2DM group (Figure 3, I and K, q = 0.04 and q = 0.0499, respectively), indicating a general decrease of POMC expression in T2DM subjects, although no difference in POMC-ir soma size was found (Figure 3J).