Using human datasets of renal transcriptomic data available on the Nephroseq repository (Fig. 1a-c) [52–54], we assessed the expression of Cx43 in healthy (n = 12) and diseased (n = 10) kidneys and determined a significant increase in Cx43 (GJA1) mRNA expression in biopsy samples isolated from people with DN as opposed to healthy donor controls (P < 0.05; Fig. 1a). The gene discussed is GJA1; the disease is liver dysplastic nodule.