Uncoupling protein-3: A new member of the mitochondrial carrier family with tissue-specific expression

Abstract

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) and skeletal muscle are important sites of nonshivering thermogenesis. The uncoupling protein-1 (UCP1) is the main effector of nonshivering thermogenesis in BAT and the recently described ubiquitous UCP2 [1] has been implicated in energy balance, In an attempt to better understand the biochemical events underlying nonshivering thermogenesis in muscle, we screened a human skeletal muscle cDNA library and isolated three clones: UCP2, UCP3(L) and UCP3(S). The novel UCP3 was 57% and 73% identical to human UCP1 and UCP2, respectively, highly skeletal muscle-specific and its expression was unaffected by cold acclimation, This new member of the UCP family is a candidate protein for the modulation of the respiratory control in skeletal muscle.