Heat shock proteins present a complex family of proteins exerting chaperone-like activities that are classified according to their molecular weight. We especially explored protective functions of inducible heat shock protein 70, the mitochondrial heat shock protein 60 and 10, and the small heat shock proteins HSP27 and alphaB-crystallin against ischemic, reoxygenation-mediated injury using tran...

Previous studies demonstrated that the induction of the heat shock protein Hsp70 in response to viral infection is highly specific and differs from one cell to another and for a given virus type. However, no clear consensus exists so far to explain the likely reasons for Hsp70 induction within host cells during viral infection. We show here that upon rotavirus infection of intestinal cells, Hsp...

In this study we have examined the expression of a heat-shock protein (HSP) 70 gene in normal human peripheral blood leukocytes. Northern blot analysis showed that appreciable levels of hsp70 mRNA are present in monocytes and granulocytes, whereas transcript levels were barely detectable or absent in lymphocytes. Monocytes functionally activated by bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) showed an e...

Background and Aims: The novel approaches in influenza vaccination have targeted more conserved viral proteins such as nucleoprotein (NP) to provide cross protection against all serotypes of influenza A viruses. Influenza specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) are able to lyse influenza-infected cells by recognition of NP, the major target molecule in virus for CTL responses. On the other hand,...

Members of the yeast p24 family, including Emp24p and Erv25p, exist as heteromeric complexes that have been proposed to cycle between the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and Golgi compartments. The specific functions and sites of action of p24 proteins are still unknown. Here we identified a human homolog of the yeast p24 family of proteins, named ERS25 (endoplasmic reticulum stress-response protein...

Laboratory experiments on the cold stenothermal midge Diamesa cinerella (Diptera, Chironomidae) were performed to study the relationship between increasing temperature and heat shock proteins (HSP70) expression at translational level (Western blotting). Thermotolerance of IV instar larvae collected in nature at 1.5-4.3°C during seasons was analyzed through short-term (1 h at ten different tempe...

The principle inducible heat-shock protein of Drosophila melanogaster, Hsp70, contributes to thermotolerance throughout the entire life cycle of the species but may also reduce fitness in some life stages. In principle, selection might maximize the benefits of Hsp70 expression relative to its costs by adjusting the magnitude of Hsp70 expression for each life-cycle stage independently. Therefore...

The role of heat shock proteins (HSPs) in heat tolerance has been demonstrated in cultured cells and animal tissues, but rarely in whole organisms because of methodological difficulties associated with gene manipulation. By comparing HSP70 expression patterns among representative species of reptiles and birds, and by determining the effect of HSP70 overexpression on embryonic development and ha...

DnaJ proteins are characterized by a 'J' domain which is homologous to a region of the Escherichia coli protein DnaJ. DnaJ has been shown to interact with the chaperone protein DnaK, and a number of eukaryotic DnaJ-like proteins have been found to interact with the 70 kDa heat-shock protein/70 kDa heat-shock cognate protein (Hsp70/Hsc70), the eukaryotic homologues of DnaK. Cysteine-string prote...

We examined the effects of heat stress (from 18 degreesC to 26 degreesC) and low oxygen tension (1% O2=1 kPa) on protein synthesis in primary cultures of hepatocytes, gill epithelial cells and fibroblast-like RTG-2 cells of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss. All these cell types displayed elevated levels of 67, 69 and 92 kDa proteins, whereas a 104 kDa protein was induced only in RTG-2 cells. H...