Statistical analysis

All statistical analyses were performed using SAS for Windows, version 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). SOMAscan RFU values were log₁₀-transformed to stabilize the variance prior to analysis. Fold change is a ratio of a mean RFU concentration of a protein in HUVECs cultured in TNFα in high glucose condition to a mean RFU concentration of a protein in HUVECs cultured in high glucose. Statistical significance of protein expression level changes between TNFα-stimulated and control HUVECs was determined by the paired two-tailed Student’s t-test and differentially expressed proteins at the Bonferroni’s correction α = 2.9 × 10⁻³ (17 KRIS proteins) and α = 3.8 × 10⁻⁵ (1305 proteins measured on the SOMAscan platform) were considered statistically significant. Enrichment or depletion of certain protein classes was conducted using two-sided Fisher’s exact tests over a background of 1305 proteins. Functional enrichment analyses were performed using DAVID Bioinformatics database^45,46.