Recently, we demonstrated that a genetically engineered mouse mutant expressing normal levels of SNAP-25 but without expressing the SNAP-25b isoform, developed metabolic impairments such as obesity, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, adipocyte hypertrophy and liver steatosis, a phenotype resembling the metabolic syndrome which was dramatically exaggerated when combined with a high fat/high carbohydrate diet intervention35. Here, SNAP25 is linked to metabolic syndrome.