Both of these processes reduce the proton gradient across theinner mitochondrial membrane, thereby dissipating energy as heat (7) and thus increasing energy expenditure.Strong evidence indicates that cancer-induced cachexia induces UCP2 and UCP3 at thetranscriptional and translational levels in skeletal muscle via tumor necrosis factor alpha(TNFα) (12–14). The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is Cachexia.