A recent study by Martin-Cordero et al. [20] using obese fa/fa obese Zucker rats confirmed the presence of augmented inflammatory markers (IL-6 and CRP) in metabolic syndrome (MS), together with increased noradrenaline contents; the authors postulate that those results may reflect a defective regulation of the negative inflammatory/stress feedback loop under those circumstances, suggesting that MS could be either the cause or the consequence of diabetes associated with obesity. The gene discussed is IL6; the disease is myeloid sarcoma.