HOXA5 and obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency: Our study further demonstrated the significance of the HOXA5 methylation profile in blood as a mark of adipose tissue dysfunction and T2D risk since blood methylation at the HOXA5 locus positively correlated with BMI in a group of obese individuals, indicating that the HOXA5 epigenetic profile can also measure the degree of obesity [13,50].