Perinatal expression of heat-shock protein 90 in different regions of the brain and in non-neural tissues of the piglet.

Important stressful events occur at birth or within the few hours that follow. To establish a possible involvement of stress proteins, expression of heat-shock protein 90 was determined by Western blotting in several regions of the brain and in non-neural tissues of the developing piglet (fetal to 10 days and adult). Expression was found in all the tissues studied. While comparable values were found in the whole brain during development, decreased expressions were observed from 4 to 8 h to 2 days after birth in cerebellum, cortex, hypothalamus and striatum. In hippocampus, low expression was observed from 4 h postnatally onward. In non-neural tissues, low expression was observed after birth and in the adult for heart, liver and lungs. In kidney, low values were found from birth to 1 day of age. Changes in environmental parameters like temperature and/or hypoxia can be related to differential expressions of heat-shock proteins and they possibly result in severe developmental outcomes. The results are discussed in terms of using the newborn piglet as a model for the study of different forms of stress on the heat-shock protein expression during postnatal development. Copyright 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel