In addition, in a rat model of type 2 diabetes induced PDN, there was increased lumbar spinal cord expression of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as well as protein levels of NLRP3, TXNIP, caspase-1, interleukin 1-beta (IL-1β) and phosphorylated N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor subunit 2B (phospho-NR2B) (Wang et al. 2022). Here, NLRP3 is linked to type 2 diabetes mellitus.