Heat shock proteins: an autoprotective mechanism for inflammatory cells?

Heat shock/stress proteins are synthesized in all cell types under a variety of stressful conditions. Stress associated with ongoing inflammation relates, at least in part, to toxic products locally generated by cells accumulating in the inflamed tissue and organ. These products include oxygen free radicals, cytokines, proteases, chemotactic factors and, in the particular case of the eosinophil, toxic basic proteins. The heat shock response in inflammatory cells appears to be specifically regulated by their own proinflammatory products (oxygen free radicals, cytokines) generated during physiological functions such as phagocytosis, during differentiation, or in certain pathological states such as inflammatory lung diseases. We suggest that in human monocytes-macrophages heat shock proteins belong to the autoprotective equipment against oxidative stress.