TNF and Impaired glucose tolerance: We determined relative cytokine and chemokine mRNA expression and protein concentrations in lung homogenates from obese mice with impaired glucose tolerance and healthy control animals at 3 and 8 weeks p.i. The mRNA expression of Tnf, Ifng, Il1b, Ifnb1 and Il10 was similar between animals (Figures 3A–E), however, mRNA expression of the chemokine Ccl2 was significantly lower in pre-diabetic mice compared to controls at 8 weeks p.i. (Figure 3F).