ULK1 and metabolic syndrome: ULK-1 and ATG5-12 increased in MetS + ELAM (p = 0.001, p = 0.002 vs. MetS) and mTOR expression showed a strong trend to increase (p = 0.07 vs. MetS), whereas p-AMPK was unaffected (p = 0.23 vs. MetS, Figure 1B).