title: Implications of heat shock/stress proteins for medicine and disease.
abstract: Heat shock/stress proteins (HSPs) are crucial for maintenance of cellular homeostasis during normal cell growth and for survival during and after various cellular stresses. The HSP70 family functions as molecular chaperones and reduces stress-induced denaturation and aggregation of intracellular proteins. In addition to the chaperoning activities, HSP70 has been suggested to exert its protective action by protecting mitochondria and by interfering with the stress-induced apoptotic program. The biochemical and functional properties of HSPs observed in cultured cells may be relevant to organs and tissues in whole animals. The activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic nerve system elicits the stress response in selected peripheral tissues; the HSP70 expression in the vasculature and stomach increases resistance against hemodynamic stress and stress-induced mucosal damage, respectively. Gastric mucosa pretreated with mild irritants acquires a tolerance against subsequent mucosal-damaging insults. This phenomenon is known as "adaptive cytoprotection". Transient ischemia also induces ischemic tolerance in the brain and heart, which is called "ischemic preconditioning". The heat shock response is believed to contribute to the acquisition of the tolerance. The therapeutic applications of chaperone inducers that induce HSPs without any toxic effect are also introduced.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutritional Physiology, University of Tokushima School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rokutan
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirakawa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Teshima
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miyoshi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawai
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Konda
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Morinaga
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nikawa
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kishi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007511:Ischemia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins