THE SEARCH FOR THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE, purported to be able to transform lead to gold and bestow upon the owner eternal life, has occupied the imagination of humans for centuries. Whereas, to the best of our knowledge, nobody ever made substantial progress toward the first objective, Andrews and Horvath in the current issue of this Journal provide stimulating new insights into what makes some ...

including the pancreatic cell. UCP3 is expressed priThe pancreatic cell is a highly specialized cell that marily in muscle. Adenoviral overexpression of UCP2 in normally responds to small changes in the blood gluinsulin secreting cells and rat islets leads to the precose concentration by regulating insulin secretion to dicted uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation and an maintain blood glucose...

The uncoupling protein (UCP) family has been suggested as a possible determinant affecting obesity risk given their function in the regulation of energy metabolism. In an effort to elucidate the effects of UCP family polymorphisms on obesity phenotypes, we genotyped 10 polymorphisms in UCP2 and UCP3 among overweight female subjects (n=458), and genetic effects on BMI and changes after a very lo...

AIMS This study was designed to gain insights into the antioxidant mechanism of a Chinese herbal remedy, Qing Huo Yi Hao (QHYH), and its active components against oxidative stress induced by high glucose in endothelial cells. MAIN METHODS Effects of QHYH on reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and nitric oxide (NO) generation were measured with the fluorescent markers H(2)DCF-DA and DAF-F...

It was reported that the common -866G/A polymorphism in the promoter of the human uncoupling protein-2 (UCP2) gene, which enhances its trascriptional activity, is associated with increased mRNA levels in human adipocytes and reduced risk of obesity. Studies in knockout mice and beta-cells indicate that UCP2 may play a role in beta-cell function. In this study, we addressed the question of wheth...

Context The rarest genetic form of congenital hyperinsulinism (HI) has been associated with dominant inactivating mutations in uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2), a mitochondrial inner membrane carrier that modulates oxidation of glucose vs amino acids. Objective To evaluate the frequency of UCP2 mutations in children with HI and phenotypic features of this form of HI. Design We examined 211 child...

OBJECTIVE Reactive oxygen species (ROS) contribute to atherogenesis. Uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) reduces mitochondrial ROS generation and protects against the disease in animal models. A common -866G/A promoter polymorphism that has been associated with obesity and beta-cell function may also affect UCP2 gene expression in cells of the arterial wall. METHODS AND RESULTS Genotype distributions...

The uncoupling protein-1 (UCP1) homologues UCP2 and UCP3 are able to uncouple ATP production from mitochondrial respiration, thereby dissipating energy as heat and affecting energy metabolism efficiency. In contrast to UCP1, which plays an important role in adaptive thermogenesis, UCP2 and UCP3 do not have a primary role in the regulation of energy metabolism. UCP2, which is expressed in a wide...

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) rely heavily on glycolysis for energy metabolism, and because their mitochondria appear poorly developed, hPSCs have been assumed to be incapable of using oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos). In this issue, Zhang et al (2011) demonstrate that hPSCs actually possess functional OxPhos machinery, but that the mitochondrial protein UCP2 decouples OxPhos from glyc...