To test the hypothesis that MC1R deficiency in the liver triggers dyslipidemia and adipocyte hypertrophy, we employed hepatocyte-specific MC1R knockout (Mc1r LKO) mice, as previously described [19], fed them Western diet for 12 weeks, and then phenotyped the mouse model in a comparable way as Mc1re/e mice. Here, MC1R is linked to metabolic syndrome.