Blood deoxysphingolipid levels are also elevated in animal models of diabetes, for example in the streptozotocin-induced rat diabetes model and in the leptin-deficient ob/ob mouse (Bertea et al., 2010; Othman et al., 2014; Othman et al., 2012; Zuellig et al., 2014). The gene discussed is LEP; the disease is diabetes mellitus.