MANF and diabetes mellitus: Although MANF and CDNF have been discovered and named after their neurotrophic activity, they show no structural resemblance to other neurotrophic factors, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) or glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), have no currently identified cell surface receptors, and both are also expressed and act outside of the central nervous system (CNS), including heart, liver, pancreas, kidney and bones, and have been shown to implicate in diseases such as diabetes and chondrodysplasia [2,4].