GDF15 and obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency: Observed associations of GDF15 plasma levels with obesity-related diseases have been presented here and found in previous reports (Tsai et al., 2015; Vila et al., 2011) and variants in the GDF15 gene region have been associated with cardiovascular traits, cholesterol, WHR, and BMI (Wang et al., 2021a).