Recent years have witnessed a surge in studies on biomarkers for early DN, but many such studies have small sample sizes, are cross-sectional in nature, or show limited results due to decomposition factors affecting the detection of urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) at times of tubular injury (61). Here, LCN2 is linked to liver dysplastic nodule.