MAPK8 and obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency: Since leptin is directly correlated with obesity [23] and cancer progression [14], and activates the JNK/STAT3-signaling pathway, we investigated whether leptin and the respective JNK/STAT3-signaling pathway [13, 24, 25] play some role in modulating the expression of mitochondrial or glycolytic genes.