Dionyssios Mintzopoulos1, Meenu Kesawarni1,2, Laurence G. Rahme3, Ronald G. Tompkins4, A Aria Tzika1
1NMR Surgical Laboratory, MGH & Shriners Hospitals, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; 2Molecular Surgery Laboratory, MGH & Shriners Hospitals, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; 3Molecular Surgical Laboratory, MGH & Shriners Hospitals, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; 4Surgery, MGH & Shriners Hospitals, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
We employed in vivo P31 NMR on intact uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3) knock-out and wild-type (control) mice, following 30% total burned surface area burn to assess the ATP synthesis rate in skeletal muscle. Our results revealed that the rate of ATP synthesis in UCP3 mice is significantly reduced as compared to controls. These findings implicate mitochondrial uncoupling in skeletal muscle following burn injury.