BACKGROUND The survival response of normal cells to heat stress is an upregulation of heat shock proteins and ras protein activation. We hypothesized that in lung cancer cells the presence of oncogenic ras interferes with thermoprotective mechanisms resulting in cell death. METHODS An equal number of lung tissue culture cells (normal and cancerous) were subjected to either heat stress and the...

PURPOSE Increased serum antibodies against heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) have been identified in patients with glaucoma. Immunization with HSP27 caused retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss in animals. The authors analyzed whether HSP27 immunization not only causes RGC loss but also affects systemic antibody patterns. METHODS Rats were immunized with HSP27 and were surveyed for 4, 5, and 6 weeks (...

PURPOSE To examine the expression and regulation of an injury-related protein, heat shock protein (Hsp) 27, in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), since RPE injury may be an important feature of age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). METHODS Retinal cross sections from eyes of Lewis rats were examined for Hsp27 in vivo by immunohistochemistry, and in vitro expression of Hsp27 in human ARPE-19...

The alpha-crystallin-related heat shock (stress) protein hsp27 is expressed in absence of heat shock during Drosophila melanogaster development. Here, we describe the tissue distribution of this protein using an immunoaffinity-purified antibody. In embryos, hsp27 translated from maternal RNA is uniformly distributed, except in the yolk. During the first, second, and early third larval stages, h...

Drug resistance minimizes the effects of prostate cancer (PC) chemotherapy with docetaxel and is generally considered to be associated with the expression of heat shock protein (HSP) 27 including various cytoprotective pathways. In the present study, we investigated the effects of HSP27 phosphorylation on PC cell growth underlying docetaxel treatment. Cell counting revealed significantly reduce...

Molecular chaperones regulate the aggregation of a number of proteins that pathologically misfold and accumulate in neurodegenerative diseases. Identifying ways to manipulate these proteins in disease models is an area of intense investigation; however, the translation of these results to the mammalian brain has progressed more slowly. In this study, we investigated the ability of one of these ...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of serum heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) as a therapeutic target in coronary artery disease. BACKGROUND Expression of HSP27 in human coronary arteries diminishes with the progression of atherosclerosis, whereas ubiquitous HSP27 overexpression in apolipoprotein E(-/-) (ApoE(-/-)) mice attenuates atherogenesis. However, it remains unc...

BACKGROUND Classical mammalian mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways consist of a cascade of three successive phosphorylation events resulting in the phosphorylation of a variety of substrates, including another class of protein kinases referred to as MAPK-activating protein kinases (MAPKAPKs). The MAPKAPKs MK2, MK3 and MK5 are closely related, but MK2 and MK3 are the major downstrea...

BACKGROUND Heat shock protein 27 (HSP 27) is known as a mediator in immune response and has been recently found to be expressed in prostate cancer. This study aimed to investigate the role of HSP27 in inflammatory BPH. MATERIAL AND METHODS Hospitalized BPH patients who received TURP were divided into 4 groups by the presence and degrees of chronic inflammation: non-inflammatory BPH (NI BPH), ...

Heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) is highly expressed in many cancers, and its prognostic and predictive value has been reported. HSP27 knockdown using siRNA or OGX-427 (an anti-sense oligonucleotide sequence targeting HSP27) is reported to have anti-cancer effects and to enhance chemosensitivity of cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agents. However, conflicting results have been reported regarding t...