Skeletal muscle mitochondrial uncoupling in a murine cancer cachexia model

Approximately half of all cancer patients present with cachexia, a condition in which disease-associated metabolic changes lead to a severe loss of skeletal muscle mass. Working toward an integrated and mechanistic view of cancer cachexia, we investigated the hypothesis that cancer promotes mitochondrial uncoupling in skeletal muscle. We subjected mice to in vivo phosphorous-31 nuclear magnetic resonance (31P NMR) spectroscopy and subjected murine skeletal muscle samples to gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The mice used in both experiments were Lewis lung carcinoma models of cancer cachexia. A novel 'fragmented mass isotopomer' approach was used in our dynamic analysis of 13C mass isotopomer data. Our 31P NMR and GC/MS results indicated that the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis rate and tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle flux were reduced by 49% and 22%, respectively, in the cancer-bearing mice (p