Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) is a mitochondrial transporter present in the inner membrane of mitochondria, and it uncouples substrate oxidation from ATP synthesis, thereby dissipating the membrane potential energy and consequently decreasing ATP production by mitochondrial respiratory chain. As a consequence of the uncoupling, UCP2 decreases reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation by mitochondria. ROS overproduction is related to diabetic retinopathy (DR), a chron...