Adiponectin is an insulin sensitizer (Berg et al., 2001; Combs et al., 2001; Yamauchi et al., 2001; Kim and Scherer, 2004), and reduced adiponectin levels (Hotta et al., 2001; Lindsay et al., 2002; Maeda et al., 2002; Spranger et al., 2003; Bajaj et al., 2004) and/or ratios of HMW/LMW (Pajvani et al., 2004; Hara et al., 2006; Lara-Castro et al., 2006) are linked to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. The gene discussed is INS; the disease is metabolic syndrome.