IL18 and diabetic kidney disease: The early markers of diabetic nephropathy were detected in the untreated diabetic animals (DN) after 14 days of STZ dosing, where the urinary levels of transferrin (Fig. 2.A); fibronectin (2.B); SDF-1 (2.D); IL-6 (2.F); TNF-α (2.H), and IL-18 (2.J) were found to be significantly higher than those in the sham and treated diabetic animals, concomitant with significant reduction of serum SDF-1 (2.C), and elevated IL-6 (2.E); TNF-α (2.G); IL-18 (2.I), and hs-CRP levels (2.K) at all time points (P < 0.0001 / each).