FABP4 and rheumatoid arthritis: Similarly, studies across various diseases, including atherosclerosis (Erbay et al, 2009), type 1 diabetes (Xiao et al, 2021), rheumatoid arthritis (Guo et al, 2022), and cancer (Yang et al, 2023), have identified FABP4 as a critical immune modulator that exacerbates disease pathology, primarily by enhancing macrophage proinflammatory activity.