Using carefully selected lean, obese, and T2DM participants, we demonstrate in the present study that obesity alone (in the absence of T2DM) does not result in an increase in T‐cell p16 mRNA (either variant 1 + 5 or variant 5) or p21Cip1 expression. Here, CDKN2A is linked to obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.