LEP and obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency: Similarly to this, the link between zinc status and obesity may be explained by the interaction between zinc metabolism and leptin, since zinc shortage reduces leptin levels in the blood in humans and rat adipocytes while zinc supplementation has the opposite effect (41, 42).Visceral adipose tissue accumulation was induced by long-term zinc supplementation in mice experiments without the involvement of adipogenesis or adipolysis (43).