Serum levels of uncoupling proteins in patients with differential insulin resistance

Abstract

The uncoupling protein (UCP) belongs to a family of energy-dissipating proteins in mitochondria. Increasing evidences have indicated that UCPs have immense impact on glucose homeostasis and are key proteins in metabolic syndrome. For applying the findings to clinical practice, we designed a study to explore the association between serum UCPs 1–3 and insulin resistance. This investigation prospectively recorded demographical parameter and collected blood samples of 1071 participants from 4 districts in Northeastern Taiwan during the period from August 2013 to July 2014. Propensity score matching by age and sex in patients with top and bottom third homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) levels was performed, and 326 subjects were enrolled for further studies. The mean age of the patients was 59.4 years and the majority of them (65.5%) were females. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 35.5%. Our results demonstrated that serum UCPs 1–3 were significantly associated with differences in HOMA-IR levels. Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that low UCP 1 and features of metabolic syndrome, namely hypertension, diabetes, body mass index, and high-density lipoprotein, were independent determinants for high HOMA-IR levels. We thus determined that low serum UCP 1 is a predictor for high resistance to insulin.

UCP2 as a Potential Biomarker for Adjunctive Metabolic Therapies in Tumor Management

“…Liquid biopsy has recently been proposed as a method of monitoring or diagnosing tumors via non-invasive, low-cost methodology by detecting circulating neoplastic cells, DNA, RNA, or proteins secreted by tumor cells ( 45 ). The feasibility of measuring UCP2 levels in patient serum has been previously demonstrated ( 46 – 48 ). Theoretically, patients may be able to establish baseline UCP2 measurements after surgical resection and monitor UCP2 trending upward, indicating disease progression, or trending downward, indicating efficacy of treatment due to either cell death or induction of differentiation.…”

Mitochondrial dysfunction and pancreatic islet β‑cell failure (Review)

“…UCPs maintain glucose homeostasis by regulating insulin secretion ( 119 ). Although UCP-1 has been reported to downregulate ROS generation, its mechanism of action remains unclear ( 120 , 121 ).…”

Association of 45-bp Ins/del Polymorphism of Uncoupling Protein 2 (UCP2) and Susceptibility to Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in North-west of Iran

“…Interestingly, researches have demonstrated that there is correlation between polymorphisms within the UCP2 gene and metabolic diseases, particularly T2DM and obesity [18]. Based studies, modifying of the expression of genes which regulate UCP-2 expression and functions is promising therapeutic approach for controlling insulin resistance, obesity and body-weight gain or body mass index (BMI) [19]. Importantly, genetic polymorphisms in UCP2, in particular 45 bp deletion/insertion (D/I), have been reported to be associated with obesity, BMI and T2DM in the general population [20].…”