Our laboratory has previously demonstrated the presence of constitutively expressed mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1 in mouse thymocytes. In our endeavours to understand the role of mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1 in thymocyte function, we compared cell profiles in thymus and spleen of wild-type with those of UCP 1 knock-out mice, which in turn led to comparative investigations of apoptoti...

AIM To evaluate a modified urine collection pad (UCP) method for its ability to reduce heavy mixed growth bacterial contamination of UCP samples in young children with suspected urinary tract infection (UTI). METHOD Febrile children under 2 years of age were randomised to two UCP METHODS: the same UCP kept in the nappy until urine was passed (single UCP group), or the UCP replaced with a fres...

BACKGROUND Increased uncoupling protein-2 (UCP-2) expression has been associated with impaired insulin secretion, whereas UCP-3 protein levels are decreased in the skeleton muscle of type-2 diabetic subjects. In the present studies we hypothesize an opposing effect of glucose on the regulation of UCP-2 and UCP-3 in pancreatic islets. METHODOLOGY Dominant negative UCP-2 and wild type UCP-3 ade...

Objective: Reducing white adipose tissue is an important strategy for treatment of obesity and its related metabolic disorders. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of endurance exercise and adenosine consumption on the expression of selected genes of thermogenic pathway in the visceral adipose tissue of obese male rats. Materials and Methods: Twenty male wistar rats were fed ...

The molecular basis for variations in resting metabolic rate (RMR) within a species is unknown. One possibility is that variations in RMR occur because of variations in uncoupling protein 2 (UCP-2) and uncoupling protein 3 (UCP-3) expression, resulting in mitochondrial proton leak differences. We tested the hypothesis that UCP-2 and -3 mRNAs positively correlate with RMR and proton leak. We tre...

Branco, Marcelo, Miriam Ribeiro, Nubio Negrão, and Antonio C. Bianco. 3,5,38-Triiodothyronine actively stimulates UCP in brown fat under minimal sympathetic activity. Am. J. Physiol. 276 (Endocrinol. Metab. 39): E179–E187, 1999.—To investigate the role of type II 58-deiodinase (58D-II) in the expression of mitochondrial uncoupling protein (UCP) in brown adipose tissue (BAT), we injected intact ...

The objective was to characterize the ability of control and transgenic brown adipose tissue (BAT)-ablated uncoupling protein diphtheria toxin A chain (UCP-DTA) mice to adjust food intake in relation to changes in environmental temperature and to assess the involvement of leptin in this adjustment. We measured serum leptin in mice from a previous study of UCP-DTA mice raised at thermoneutrality...

Uncoupling protein-2 (UCP-2) is a mitochondrial protein expressed in adipocytes and has recently been involved in the control of energy dissipation. Because obesity is characterized by an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure and by an enhanced adipocyte-derived secretion of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), we asked whether TNF-alpha could directly influence UCP-2 expression i...

The physiological significance of changes in uncoupling protein-2 (UCP-2) gene expression is controversial. In this study we investigated the biochemical and functional correlates of UCP-2 gene expression in sc abdominal adipose tissue in humans in vivo. UCP-2 messenger ribonucleic acid expression was quantified by nuclease protection in adipose tissue from lean and obese humans in both the fas...