Ras guanine nucleotide-releasing protein-4 promotes renal inflammatory injury in type 2 diabetes mellitus

•Ras guanine nucleotide-releasing protein-4 (RasGRP4) is a novel signaling protein which mainly expresses in peripheral blood mononuclear cells.•RasGRP4 played an important role in triggering the pro-inflammatory pathway in diabetic kidney injury through in vivo and in vitro experiments.•RasGRP4 regulated the interaction between PBMCs and GEnCs.•RasGRP4 mediated activating NLRP3 inflammasome and MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathways of GEnCs.