AIM2 and type 2 diabetes mellitus: AIM2 is a well-described sensor to recognize either exogenous or endogenous double-stranded DNA37,38,64; while two recent reports have indicated the involvement of AIM2 inflammasome with mtDNA: Bae et al. demonstrated that circulating cell-free mtDNA in the serum from type 2 diabetic subjects induced AIM2 inflammasome activation in macrophages and contributed to the chronic inflammation in type 2 diabetes65; another report showed that cholesterol could induce mtDNA release and activation of AIM2 inflammasome in macrophages66.