[Efficiency and mitochondrial metabolism: an etiological axis for obesity?]

Obesity, an increasing prevalent disease, appears as a consequence of an energetic umbalance that might be related to the efficiency of the cellular energetic machinery involving the mitochondria. In this organelle takes place the oxidative phosphorylation, that ends with the transformation of the nutrients to energy and the ATP production. During this process, free radicals of high oxidative power maybe blocked by endogenous antioxidants like the glutathion, in collaboration with the contribution of antioxidants supplied by the diet. The discovery of mitochondrial uncoupling proteins (UCPs) opened a new field of investigation, emphasizing the role of UCP1 or thermogenin, which generates an energy dissipation as heat and diminishing the amount of formed ATP and ROS and forcing the cell that expresses the UCP1 to oxidize more nutrients to obtain energy. Also, genetic studies have been carried out about UCP2 and UCP3 polymorphisms that relate them to obesity.