CD69 and obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency: To study how T2D and obesity affect the capacity of ASCs to modulate T-cell activation, CD4 T cells in monocultures and cocultures were analyzed for the expression of CD4 and well-known T-cell activation markers, including CD25, CD279, CD26, HLA-DR, and CD69.54-58 In our study, ndASCs and dASCs profoundly reduced the expression level of the key receptor CD4 on T cells, suggesting significant inhibition of CD4 T-cell activation by ASCs, as reported previously.51