title: Cold acclimation and oxygen consumption in the thymus.
abstract: Mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1 is usually associated with brown adipose tissue but has recently been discovered in rat and mouse thymus. We wished to establish whether there was a thermogenic role for UCP 1 in thymus and thus examined the effect of 5 weeks cold-acclimation on rat thymus tissue abundance, thymocyte oxygen consumption, thymus mitochondrial abundance, uncoupling protein 1 expression and function. We found that thymocytes from cold-acclimated rats had oxygen consumption rates 8 times less than those from rats held at room temperature and that thymocytes from cold-acclimated rats or rats kept at room temperature were noradrenaline insensitive. In addition, we found that thymus tissue or mitochondrial abundance was not increased after cold-acclimation. However uncoupling protein 1 expression per unit mass of mitochondria was increased after cold-acclimation, as determined by immunoblotting (approximately 1.7-fold) and GDP binding (approximately 1.5-fold). Consistent with our protein expression data, we also observed an increased, state 4 (approximately 1.5-fold), GDP-inhibitable (approximately 1.3-fold) and palmitate activatable (approximately 1.6-fold) oxygen consumption rates in isolated thymus mitochondria. However, extrapolation of our data showed that cold-acclimation only increased the amount of UCP 1 per gram of thymus tissue approximately 1.2-fold. Taken together, we conclude that UCP 1 does not have a thermogenic role in thymus.
authors.affiliation: School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Clare M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Brennan
authors.forename: Eamon P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Breen
authors.forename: Richard K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Porter
mesh_terms: D000064:Acclimatization; D000818:Animals; D019277:Entropy; D005260:Female; D006153:Guanosine Diphosphate / Q000737:chemistry; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000378:metabolism; D007700:Kinetics; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism; D024101:Mitochondrial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D010766:Phosphorylation; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D013696:Temperature; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D000071256:Uncoupling Protein 1
chemical_list: D007473:Ion Channels; D024101:Mitochondrial Proteins; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; C000604372:Ucp1 protein, mouse; C000604373:Ucp1 protein, rat; D000071256:Uncoupling Protein 1; D006153:Guanosine Diphosphate