TNF and type 2 diabetes mellitus: The association between the increase in LCN2 concentrations and the development and severity of T2D can be explained through the evidence that demonstrates that LCN2 stimulates the increase of TNF-a and IL-6 (Yan et al. 2007; Wu et al. 2014a; Zhao et al. 2014), cytokines that have been widely recognized as inducers of insulin resistance (Akash et al. 2013).