The finding that chemerin caused a significant increase in blood pressure in vivo in normotensive rats (Kennedy et al., 2016) suggests that in conditions such as obesity, in which chemerin levels are chronically upregulated (Stejskal et al., 2008; Dong et al., 2011; Lin et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2013; Stefanov et al., 2014), this could lead to the development of hypertension by direct activation of CMKLR1 on the vascular smooth muscle. The gene discussed is RARRES2; the disease is obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.