ADIPOQ and diabetes mellitus: Sharma et al. in their study comprising a cohort of patients at high risk for developing diabetes and kidney disease as well as in the model of adiponectin gene-knockout (Ad(-/-)) mice showed that adiponectin may have renoprotective effects on podocytes, by reducing their apoptosis through activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and suppressing oxidative stress [30].