SLC5A2 and type 2 diabetes mellitus: Furthermore, a recent clinical trial using a sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor, empagliflozin, appears to improve the composite hard renal endpoints in type 2 diabetic patients at high cardiovascular risk (9), in which some pleiotropic effects such as persistent hyperketonemia ketone bodies and/or hematocrit are suggested to be involved in the renoprotective mechanism of the SGLT2 inhibitor (10).