CXCL12 and diabetes mellitus: In addition, the limitations of this study include: 1) Cross-sectional nature of data; 2) Single-day blood and urine sampling; 3) Inpatient setting of DM patients; 4) Potential influence of unmeasured confounding factors; 5) the absence of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) measurement.Although studies have focused on specific biomarkers associated with lymphangiogenesis (vascular endothelial growth factor-C, vascular endothelial growth factor-D, and CXCL-12), blood urea nitrogen is an important parameter for assessing kidney function.