TNF and diabetic kidney disease: The results demonstrated that SM preparations led to reductions in serum creatinine (Scr), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), urinary albumin excretion rate (UAER), 24-h urinary total protein (24 h-utp), C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels among patients with DKD (P < 0.05).