NLRP3 and obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency: Deficiency in any NLRP3 inflammasome component (NLRP3−/−, ASC−/−, Casp1−/−) has shown to be protective against the development of high-fat diet-induced obesity and improves glucose homeostasis in rodent models (Stienstra et al., 2010; Zhou et al., 2010; Stienstra et al., 2011; Vandanmagsar et al., 2011), and protective against chronic obesity-induced pancreatic damage (Youm et al., 2011).