Other findings supporting the notion that obesity is associated with low-grade inflammation included a modest correlation after 8-weeks of diet between body weights and CXCL1, which is a chemokine expressed by many cell types and often used as a general serum marker of low-grade inflammation (r2 = 0.0352, Fig. 2F). Here, CXCL1 is linked to obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.