The effects of environmental hypoxia on cardiac and skeletal muscle metabolism are dependent on the duration and severity of hypoxic exposure, though factors which dictate the nature of the metabolic response to hypoxia are poorly understood. We therefore set out to investigate the time-dependence of metabolic acclimatisation to hypoxia in rat cardiac and skeletal muscle. Rats were housed under...

Intramyocellular lipids (IMCL) and mitochondrial uncoupling protein-3 (UCP3) have been implicated in the development of muscular insulin resistance. This study aimed to investigate the role of IMCL and UCP3 in the development of glucose intolerance and muscular insulin resistance during 12 weeks of an obesity-inducing 'cafeteria-style' diet alone (CAF), or in conjunction with exercise training ...

An efficient uncoupling process is generally considered to have a protective effect on the aging muscle by slowing down its age-related decay. Genetic polymorphisms in the Uncoupling Protein 3 (UCP3) gene, whose product is mainly expressed in skeletal muscle, were suggested to be associated with hand grip (HG) performances in elderly populations. Considering the population specificity of the qu...

Ovariectomy leads to weight gain primarily in the form of adipose tissue in rodents. The authors investigated whether swimming improves ovariectomy-induced obesity through activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) in the skeletal muscle of female ovariectomized (OVX) mice, an animal model of postmenopausal women. Female mice were randomly divided into 3 groups (n=8/grou...

Malonyl-CoA functions as a mediator in the hypothalamic sensing of energy balance and regulates the neural physiology that governs feeding behavior and energy expenditure. The central administration of C75, a potent inhibitor of the fatty acid synthase (FAS), increases malonyl-CoA concentration in the hypothalamus and suppresses food intake while activating fatty acid oxidation in skeletal musc...

Cellular adaptations to endurance training are influenced by the intensity and duration of exercise. To examine the impact of exercise intensity and duration on the acute transcriptional regulation of metabolic genes in red (RG) and white (WG) gastrocnemius muscle, rats completed either low-intensity [ approximately 50% maximal O2 uptake (VO2 max)] treadmill exercise (LIE) for 45 min, LIE for 1...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Some studies have pointed to a role of UCP3 in the regulation of biochemical and fat parameters in overweight patients. The aim of our study was to investigate the influence of -55CT polymorphism of UCP3 gene (rs1800849) on histological changes and insulin resistance in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). MATERIAL AND METHODS A population of 39 patient...

Variability of the uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3) promoter has been associated with increased body mass index (BMI) and altered lipid profiles. Here we tested the hypothesis that variation of the UCP3 promoter is associated with either juvenile or maturity-onset obesity or body weight change over a 26-yr follow-up among Danish subjects. Mutation screening of approximately 1 kb 5' upstream of the U...

Mice deficient in mitochondrial uncoupling protein (UCP) 1 are cold sensitive, despite abundant expression of the homologues, Ucp2 and Ucp3 (S. Enerbäck, A. Jacobsson, E. M. Simpson, C. Guerra, H. Yamashita, M.-E. Harper, and L. P. Kozak. Nature 387: 90-94, 1997). We have analyzed characteristics of mitochondrial proton leak from brown adipose tissue (BAT) of Ucp1-deficient mice and normal cont...

OBJECTIVE Whether the polymorphisms in the UCP3 gene have an influence on plasma homocysteine levels during youth is not known, and to elucidate the putative modifying role of fitness is also of clinical interest. We analysed the association between polymorphisms in the UCP3 gene and plasma homocysteine in youth and to examine whether fitness modifies this association. METHODS The study popul...