Non shivering thermogenesis of brown adipose tissue is due to the uncoupling protein (UCP), located in the inner mitochondrial membrane, which functions as a proton translocator and can thus uncouple mitochondrial respiration. We describe here the expression of UCP in Xenopus laevis oocytes after injection of UCP mRNA, which was transcribed in vitro. UCP seems to be correctly transported into mitochondria and integrated into the membrane, but we were not able to establish definitely the functionality of this UCP. We conclude that this expression system could be suitable for the study of the mitochondrial import mechanism but not for the examination of physiological properties of UCP.