Introduction: Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been suggested to play an important role in the myocardial damage induced by ischemia – reperfusion. One element believed to be activated by ROS and to contribute to the reduction of ROS production, is the uncoupling protein-2 (UCP2). The objective of this investigation was to explore the effect of myocardial ischemia reperfusion on cardiac UC...

Lung injury is one of the major concerns for chest cancer patients that undergo radiotherapy as well as persons exposed to an accidental radiological event. Reduction/oxidation (redox) system plays a key role in lung injury via chronic upregulation of pro-oxidant enzymes. NOX2 and NOX4 are two important reactive oxygen species generating enzymes that are involved in radiation toxicity in some o...

Previous studies have indicated that exercise acutely induces large increases in uncoupling protein-3 (UCP3) in skeletal muscle, whereas endurance training results in marked decreases in muscle UCP3. Because UCP3 expression appears to be regulated by the same mechanism as other mitochondrial constituents, it seemed unlikely that exercise would result in such large and divergent changes in mitoc...

Decreased uncoupling protein (UCP)3 is associated with insulin resistance in muscle of pre-diabetic and diabetic individuals, but the function of UCP3 remains unclear. Our goal was to elucidate mechanisms underlying the negative correlation between UCP3 and insulin resistance in muscle. We determined effects of physiologic UCP3 overexpression on glucose and fatty acid oxidation and on mitochond...

Overexpression of the ERBB2 receptor tyrosine kinase and the mitochondrial inner membrane protein UCP2 occurs frequently in aggressive cancers with dysfunctional mitochondria. Overexpressed ERBB2 signals constitutively and elevated UCP2 can uncouple mitochondria and alleviate oxidative stress. However, the physiological contributions of UCP2 and ERBB2 at the low expression levels that are typic...

Recently, a role for uncoupling protein-3 (UCP3) in carbohydrate metabolism and in type 2 diabetes has been suggested. Mice overexpressing UCP3 in skeletal muscle showed reduced fasting plasma glucose levels, improved glucose tolerance after an oral glucose load, and reduced fasting plasma insulin levels. However, data regarding the expression of UCP3 in patients with type 2 diabetes is inconsi...

Objective—Previous studies demonstrated that uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) plays a negative role in modulating leukocyte inflammatory responses. The mechanism underneath the role of UCP2 in modulating leukocyte inflammatory responses, however, is incompletely understood. Here, we investigated the effect of UCP2 in polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) chemotaxis. Methods and Results—First, we assesse...