Mitochondrial uncoupling protein 2 is up-regulated in human head and neck, skin, pancreatic, and prostate tumors.

Background: Mitochondrial uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) uncouples electron transport from ATP production. UCP2 has been shown to play an important role in obesity and diabetes. Interestingly, studies have demonstrated that UCP2 is up-regulated in human colon cancer samples.

Objective: In order to study the role of UCP2 in human cancers, we detected the UCP2 protein level in various human tumor tissues.

Methods: Six types of human tumor and adjacent normal tissue samples were collected and analyzed by Western blot assays to detect the levels of UCP2.

Results: The results showed that in the human head and neck, skin, prostate, and pancreatic tumor samples examined, the protein levels of UCP2 were significantly higher in tumor tissues than that in the adjacent normal tissues. The protein levels of UCP2 was lower in non-small cell lung tumor tissues, which is marginal significant.

Conclusions: Over expression of UCP2 in certain tumors provides the rationale to speculate that UCP2 may promote tumor growth in these cancers.