Similarly to our observations, decreased SHBG mRNA and protein levels have been previously correlated to lower expression of insulin-associated effectors, namely, IRS-1, IRS-2, PI3Kp85α and GLUT-3 and GLUT-4, and has been further linked to the PI3K/AKT pathway-mediated systemic insulin resistance (Feng et al., 2018). Here, INS is linked to Insulin resistance.