TRIB3 and obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency: Mammalian TGF-β signaling through Smad3 plays a key role in adipogenesis related to the onset of diet-induced obesity and Trib3 is elevated both in patients with type 2 diabetes and animal models of this disease [108,109,110], leading Hong et al. to speculate that targeting Trib3 could offer new strategies for preventing type 2 diabetes associated with defects in TGF-β signaling [106].