MBOAT4 and Obesity: Under conditions of obesity induced by high fat diet or leptin deficiency in ob/ob mice, a down-regulation of GOAT mRNA occurred in the mouse pituitary, unlike the stomach or hypothalamus (Gahete et al., 2010b), while patients with obesity-associated type 2 diabetes showed higher levels of GOAT in visceral adipose tissue (Rodriguez et al., 2012).