Current experimental evidence suggests that endothelial function is a reliable, early predictor of cardiovascular mortality, encompassing production of the different endothelium-derived messengers that help to control vascular tone, blood flow, immune cell and platelet activity/adhesion, which also correlates with classical markers of inflammation, obesity and cardiovascular risk such as CRP, adiponectin and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) [71,72,73]. The gene discussed is NPPB; the disease is obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.