In this study, we investigated the role of TIMP4 in obesity using Timp4-deficient mice and found that TIMP4 promotes high fat-induced obesity, fatty liver and dyslipidemia possibly by promoting intestinal lipid absorption by preventing proteolytic processing of CD36, the cell surface fatty acid transporters in enterocytes. The gene discussed is TIMP4; the disease is obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.