Though this is superficially at odds with the traditional or classical definition of metabolic syndrome, the absence of hypertension in the Trpc1−/− mice despite expression of other salient features of metabolic syndrome including obesity, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, and hyperlipidemia, could be due to the lack of the principal or primary gene product(s) responsible for hypertension in Trpc1−/− mice. The gene discussed is TRPC1; the disease is obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.