ATG5 and obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency: Thus, in a diet-induced obesity model, metformin was shown to improve autophagy in the liver, while it was inhibited in the epididymal adipose tissue [29], which is in line with the inhibition of autophagy in VAT observed in the present work, and mediated by a significant drop in protein expression of Beclin 1 and ATG5 and an increase in p62 (autophagy initiation, elongation and cargo recognition, respectively).