Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0011849 (diabetes)
277,896 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A mitochondrial protein called uncoupling protein (UCP1) plays an important role in generating heat and burning calories by creating a pathway that allows dissipation of the proton electrochemical gradient across the inner mitochondrial membrane in brown adipose tissue, without coupling to any other energy-consuming process. This pathway has been implicated in the regulation of body temperature, body composition and glucose metabolism. However, UCP1-containing brown adipose tissue is unlikely to be involved in weight regulation in adult large-size animals and humans living in a thermoneutral environment (one where an animal does not have to increase oxygen consumption or energy expenditure to lose or gain heat to maintain body temperature), as there is little brown adipose tissue present. We now report the discovery of a gene that codes for a novel uncoupling protein, designated UCP2, which has 59% amino-acid identity to UCP1, and describe properties consistent with a role in diabetes and obesity. In comparison with UCP1, UCP2 has a greater effect on mitochondrial membrane potential when expressed in yeast. Compared to UCP1, the gene is widely expressed in adult human tissues, including tissues rich in macrophages, and it is upregulated in white fat in response to fat feeding. Finally, UCP2 maps to regions of human chromosome 11 and mouse chromosome 7 that have been linked to hyperinsulinaemia and obesity. Our findings suggest that UCP2 has a unique role in energy balance, body weight regulation and thermoregulation and their responses to inflammatory stimuli.
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PMID:Uncoupling protein-2: a novel gene linked to obesity and hyperinsulinemia. 905 25

Recent discoveries about the roles of 2 uncoupling proteins are changing the way we view obesity and its treatment. The author is also a coauthor of a recent Nature report that mice deficient in uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) did not become fat, as anticipated, but lean. She found that the other uncoupling protein (UCP2) was up-regulated in the brown adipose tissue (BAT) of these mice, compensating, at least in part, for the lack of UCP1 and preventing obesity. Researchers have known for 40 years that the function of BAT is heat production. In 1978, researchers discovered UCP1, the protein responsible for this function. Subsequent investigation focused on the role of this protein in staving off obesity in animal models. In the early 1990s, surprising evidence from tissues other than BAT show that 20% to 40% of resting cellular energy expenditure is used to counter a proton leak down the electrochemical gradient across the mitochondrial inner membrane. This leak was found to be related to metabolic rate; the search for the mechanism of the leak led to the discovery of UCP2. Both uncoupling proteins have been found to act as leaks in mitochondrial inner membranes, allowing the dissipation of proton motive force. These findings could lead to new treatments for obesity and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.
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PMID:Obesity research continues to spring leaks. 925 78

Despite the fact that mutations resulting in the absence of leptin or its receptor have been associated with severe obesity and diabetes, such mutations do not appear to be responsible for most human obesity. Indeed, diet-induced obesity in animals and humans has been characterized by hyperleptinemia. This has been interpreted as evidence for leptin resistance. However, no careful longitudinal studies evaluating the role of leptin in the development of obesity exist. We report a series of studies in A/J and C57BL/6J (B/6) mice that demonstrate a direct relationship between the ability to increase plasma leptin levels in response to a high-fat diet and resistance to the subsequent development of obesity and diabetes. While leptin levels are similar in lean, low-fat-fed A/J and B/6 mice, the effects of a high-fat diet on plasma leptin differ dramatically between the two strains. After 4 weeks of high-fat feeding, leptin levels in A/J mice increased 10-fold, and this elevated level was maintained independent of weight gain throughout a 14-week feeding period. However, in B/6 mice, leptin levels remained at least twofold lower and only rose very gradually along with a significant increase in adiposity, hyperglycemia, and hyperinsulinemia. These differences in the response of leptin to diet are independent of food intake and plasma insulin levels during the 1st month of feeding. Further, we demonstrated that leptin administration did not influence the expression of the novel uncoupling protein UCP2, which also responds to dietary fat. From these results, we suggest that the response of leptin to fat feeding may be an important predictor of the development of subsequent obesity.
Diabetes 1997 Sep
PMID:Low plasma leptin in response to dietary fat in diabetes- and obesity-prone mice. 928 57

Uncoupling protein (UCP1) is a transmembrane proton transporter present in the mitochondria of brown adipose tissue (BAT), a specialized tissue which functions in temperature homeostasis and energy balance (Nicholls, D. G., and Locke, R. M. (1984) Physiol. Rev. 64, 2-40; Lowell, D. D., and Flier, J. S. (1997) Annu. Rev. Med.). UCP1 mediates the thermogenesis that is characteristic of BAT by uncoupling mitochondrial oxidation of substrates from ATP synthesis. Recently, two proteins related to UCP1 have been identified and designated UCP2 (Fleury, C., et al. (1997) Nature Genetics 15, 269-272) or UCP homolog (UCPH) (Gimeno, R. E., et al. (1997) Diabetes 46, 900-906) and UCP3 (Boss, O., et al. (1997) FEBS Lett. 408, 39-42; Vidal-Puig, A., et al. (1997) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 235, 79-82). We investigated the regulation in rats of UCP3, which is expressed primarily in skeletal muscle and BAT. Expression of rat UCP3 mRNA in BAT was upregulated by in vivo treatment with triiodothyronine (T3) and by exposure to cold, suggesting that UCP3 is active in thermogenesis and energy expenditure. In skeletal muscle, UCP3 mRNA was also upregulated by T3 but, surprisingly, not by cold exposure. A hypothesis is proposed to account for this differential regulation.
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PMID:Regulation of the third member of the uncoupling protein family, UCP3, by cold and thyroid hormone. 936 14

The newly described uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3) may make an important contribution to thermogenesis in humans because of its high level of expression in skeletal muscle. Contrary to expectations, fasting, a condition that reduces resting energy expenditure, has been reported to increase UCP3 expression in muscle. We have confirmed that a 10-fold increase in UCP3 mRNA levels occurs in rat quadriceps muscle between 12 and 24 h of food removal. A less consistent twofold increase in muscle UCP2 mRNA levels was observed in animals fasted for up to 72 h. Administration of recombinant leptin to prevent a fall in circulating leptin levels did not eliminate the fasting-induced increase in quadriceps UCP3 expression. Administration of a high dose of glucocorticoid to fed animals to mimic the increase in corticosterone induced by fasting did not reproduce the increase in UCP3 expression observed in fasted animals. In contrast, elevation of circulating free fatty acid levels in fed animals by Intralipid plus heparin infusion caused significant increases in the UCP3/actin mRNA ratio compared with saline-infused fed controls in both extensor digitorum longus (2.01 +/- 0.34 vs. 0.68 +/- 0.11, P = 0.002) and soleus muscles (0.31 +/- 0.07 vs. 0.09 +/- 0.02, P = 0.014). We conclude that free fatty acids are a potential mediator of the increase in muscle UCP3 expression that occurs during fasting. This seemingly paradoxical induction of UCP3 may be linked to the use of free fatty acid as a fuel rather than an increased need of the organism to dissipate energy.
Diabetes 1998 Feb
PMID:Elevated free fatty acids induce uncoupling protein 3 expression in muscle: a potential explanation for the effect of fasting. 951 32

Continuous (4 days) intracerebroventricular leptin infusion (12 microg/day) was performed in lean rats, and its hormonometabolic effects were determined. Intracerebroventricular leptin administration did not result in leakage of the hormone into the peripheral circulation. Thus, its effects were elicited by its presence within the central nervous system. Intracerebroventricular leptin infusion produced marked decreases in food intake and body weight gain relative to vehicle-infused fed ad libitum rats. Because decreases in food intake alter hormonometabolic homeostasis, additional control rats pair-fed to the amount of food consumed by leptin-infused ones were included in the study. Intracerebroventricular leptin-infused and vehicle-infused pair-fed rats were characterized, relative to vehicle-infused ad libitum-fed animals, by decreases in body weight and insulinemia and by increases in insulin-stimulated overall glucose utilization and muscle and brown adipose tissue glucose utilization index. Brown adipose tissue uncoupling protein (UCP)1, UCP2, and UCP3 mRNA levels were markedly decreased in pair-fed animals relative to those of fed ad libitum control animals, as were liver and white adipose tissue UCP2 and muscle UCP3 mRNA levels. In marked contrast, intracerebroventricular leptin administration was accompanied by the maintenance of high UCP1, UCP2, and UCP3 expression in all these tissues. Thus, despite analogies between leptin's effects and those of pair-feeding with regard to glucose handling, their respective underlying mechanisms differ. While leptin maintains or favors energy-dissipating mechanisms (UCP1, UCP2, and UCP3), the latter are markedly depressed in pair-fed rats. This effect of leptin may prevent subsequent excessive storage processes, thereby maintaining normal body homeostasis.
Diabetes 1998 Jul
PMID:Chronic central leptin infusion enhances insulin-stimulated glucose metabolism and favors the expression of uncoupling proteins. 964 22

Troglitazone, besides improving insulin action in insulin-resistant subjects, is also a specific ligand for the nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARgamma). To determine whether troglitazone might enhance insulin action by stimulation of PPARgamma gene expression in muscle, total PPARgamma messenger RNA (mRNA), and protein were determined in skeletal muscle cultures from nondiabetic control and type II diabetic subjects before and after treatment of cultures with troglitazone (4 days +/- troglitazone, 11.5 microM). Troglitazone treatment increased PPARgamma mRNA levels up to 3-fold in muscle cultures from type II diabetics (277 +/- 63 to 630 +/- 100 x 10(3) copies/microg total RNA, P = 0.003) and in nondiabetic control subjects (200 +/- 42 to 490 +/- 81, P = 0.003). PPARgamma protein levels in both diabetic (4.7 +/- 1.6 to 13.6 +/- 3.0 AU/10 microg protein, P < 0.02) and nondiabetic cells (7.4 +/- 1.0 to 12.7 +/- 1.8, P < 0.05) were also upregulated by troglitazone treatment. Increased PPARgamma was associated with stimulation of human adipocyte lipid binding protein (ALBP) and muscle fatty acid binding protein (mFABP) mRNA, without change in the mRNA for glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, PPARdelta, myogenin, uncoupling protein-2, or sarcomeric alpha-actin protein. In summary, we showed that troglitazone markedly induces PPARgamma, ALBP, and mFABP mRNA abundance in muscle cultures from both nondiabetic and type II diabetic subjects. Increased expression of PPARgamma protein and other genes involved in glucose and lipid metabolism in skeletal muscle may account, in part, for the insulin sensitizing effects of troglitazone in type II diabetes.
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PMID:Troglitazone effects on gene expression in human skeletal muscle of type II diabetes involve up-regulation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma. 970 55

Uncoupling proteins 3 and 2 (UCP3 and UCP2) are two newly cloned genes that have been implicated in the regulation of lipids as fuel substrate in skeletal muscle on the basis that their mRNA expressions are upregulated during starvation (when fat stores are being rapidly mobilized) and downregulated during the early phase of refeeding (when fat stores are being rapidly replenished). To test the hypothesis that circulating free fatty acids (FFAs) may have a physiological role as an interorgan signal linking these dynamic changes in the fat stores to skeletal muscle expression of UCP3 and UCP2, the mRNA levels of these UCP homologs were examined in fed and fasted rats treated with the antilipolytic agent nicotinic acid. In 46-h fasted rats, we observed a threefold increase in serum FFA levels and increases in UCP3 and UCP2 mRNA levels that were more marked in the gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior muscles (predominantly fast-twitch fibers) than in the soleus muscle (predominantly slow-twitch fibers). Treatment with nicotinic acid blunted the fasting-induced increase in serum FFA levels and prevented the increase in mRNA levels of UCP3 and UCP2 in the soleus muscle, but had little or no effect on the elevated mRNA levels of these UCP homologs in the gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior muscles. Furthermore, treatment of ad libitum-fed animals with nicotinic acid resulted in a twofold reduction in serum FFA levels (i.e., by a magnitude similar to that observed during early refeeding) and significant reductions in UCP3 and UCP2 mRNA levels in the soleus muscle, but not in the gastrocnemius or tibialis anterior muscles. These results revealed a muscle-type dependency in the way UCP2 and UCP3 gene expression in skeletal muscle is regulated, and suggest that the hypothesis that circulating FFAs function as an interorgan signal between fat stores and skeletal muscle UCP3 and UCP2 gene expression is adequate only for slow-twitch (oxidative) muscles. Consequently, a signal(s) other than circulating FFAs must be implicated in the link between dynamic changes in body fat stores and UCP expression in predominantly fast-twitch (glycolytic/oxidative-glycolytic) muscles, which constitute the major fiber type of the total skeletal muscle mass and which have high susceptibility to developing insulin resistance and impairment in substrate utilization in metabolic diseases.
Diabetes 1998 Nov
PMID:Interorgan signaling between adipose tissue metabolism and skeletal muscle uncoupling protein homologs: is there a role for circulating free fatty acids? 979 37

Uncoupling protein (UCP) 3 and UCP2, mitochondrial carrier proteins dissipating electrochemical gradient across the mitochondrial inner membrane, have been implicated in the regulation of energy metabolism. The UCP3 gene is expressed abundantly in the skeletal muscle, while the UCP2 gene is detected in the white adipose tissue (WAT) with diffuse localization throughout the body. Uncoupling of electron transport and ATP synthesis has been reported to increase glucose uptake, suggesting that UCP may be involved in glucose metabolism. Thiazolidinediones (TZDs), which are insulin-sensitizing agents for NIDDM, have been reported to increase energy expenditure. To elucidate the pathophysiologic significance of UCP3 and UCP2 in the effect of TZDs on glucose metabolism and energy expenditure, we examined their basal mRNA levels in the WAT, brown adipose tissue (BAT), and skeletal muscle from Wistar fatty rats, a rat model of NIDDM and obesity with leptin receptor defect, and investigated expression of the genes encoding UCP3 and UCP2 in Wistar fatty rats and in Wistar lean rats with 2-week oral administration of 3 mg x kg(-1) x day(-1) pioglitazone, a TZD derivative. Basal UCP3 mRNA levels were significantly lower (38 +/- 8, 45 +/- 13, and 76 +/- 6%) in the retroperitoneal WAT, BAT, and skeletal muscle from Wistar fatty rats than in those from Wistar lean rats, while basal UCP2 mRNA levels were significantly higher by 2.1-, 1.8-, and 2.5-fold in the subcutaneous WAT, retroperitoneal WAT, and BAT from Wistar fatty rats, respectively, than in those from Wistar lean rats. In pioglitazone-treated Wistar fatty rats, UCP3 mRNA levels were significantly increased by 2.1-, 2.0-, and 1.6-fold in the epididymal WAT, retroperitoneal WAT, and BAT, respectively, as compared with those in nontreated fatty rats. In pioglitazone-treated lean rats, UCP3 mRNA levels were significantly increased by 1.3-fold in the BAT as compared with those in nontreated lean rats. No significant change of UCP2 mRNA levels was observed in pioglitazone-treated fatty and lean rats. In addition, to examine the direct effect of TZDs on adipocytes, we examined the regulation of UCP3 and UCP2 gene expression using the primary culture of rat mature adipocytes from Sprague-Dawley rats. In rat cultured mature adipocytes, UCP3 mRNA levels were increased in a dose-responsive manner by 10(-5) to 10(-4) mol/l pioglitazone, while there was no significant change of UCP2 mRNA levels. These results clearly demonstrate that UCP3 gene expression is upregulated by TZDs in the WAT and BAT in Wistar fatty rats, an obese model with leptin receptor defect, and that adipose UCP3 gene expression is increased in response to TZDs in vitro. The present study suggests the involvement of UCP3 in the effects of TZDs on energy and glucose metabolism.
Diabetes 1998 Nov
PMID:Increased adipose expression of the uncoupling protein-3 gene by thiazolidinediones in Wistar fatty rats and in cultured adipocytes. 979 55

To explore the potential role of the uncoupling protein (UCP) family in human obesity and diabetes, we have used the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction to quantify UCP mRNA expression in human skeletal muscle. Levels of mRNA for UCP2, and for both short (UCP3S) and long (UCP3L) forms of UCP3, were highly correlated in individuals, indicating that gene transcription of these UCPs may be coordinately regulated by common mechanisms. In normal glucose-tolerant individuals, muscle UCP2 mRNA levels were positively correlated with percentage of body fat and with BMI (r = 0.6 and P < 0.05 for both). UCP3S mRNA levels were also positively correlated with percentage of body fat (r = 0.52, P < 0.05), and UCP3L mRNA tended to increase as a function of obesity (0.05 < P < 0.1). UCP mRNA levels, however, were not correlated with resting metabolic rate. UCP3S and UCP3L mRNA levels (P < 0.05) and the UCP2 mRNA level (P = 0.09) were increased by 1.8- to 2.7-fold in type 2 diabetes, an effect that could not be explained by obesity. No significant difference was found for UCP2, UCP3S, or UCP3L mRNA levels between insulin-sensitive and insulin-resistant nondiabetic subgroups. We conclude that 1) skeletal muscle mRNA levels encoding UCP2 and UCP3 are correlated among individuals and may be coordinately regulated; 2) UCP3 expression is not regulated by differential effects on UCP3L and UCP3S forms of the mRNA; and 3) UCP mRNA expression tends to increase in muscle as a function of obesity but not of resting metabolic rate or insulin resistance, and is increased in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes 1998 Dec
PMID:Expression of mRNAs encoding uncoupling proteins in human skeletal muscle: effects of obesity and diabetes. 983 27


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