Heat-shock protein 90 alpha (HSP90α) modulates signaling pathways towards tolerance of oxidative stress and enhanced survival of hepatocytes of Mugil cephalus.

Oxidative stress causes damage at the cellular level and activates a number of signaling pathways. Earlier, we have demonstrated that pollutant-related oxidative stress upregulates heat-shock protein 90 alpha (HSP90α) against stress insult in hepatocytes of Mugil cephalus living in a polluted estuary. However, the impact of pollution-induced HSP90α upregulation on stress tolerance is not clear. Here we propose that the effect of stress resistance depends on the ability of HSP90α to modulate the signaling pathways involving proteins such as apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1, c-Jun NH(2)-terminal protein kinase 1/2, signal transducers and activators of transcription, extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2, protein kinase B, nuclear factor-kappa binding, Ets-like protein 1, and B cell lymphoma-2. In order to investigate this, the activation of HSP90α-associated signaling molecules was examined by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. The relationship between the protein expression patterns was identified by Spearman's rank correlation analysis. The signaling proteins exhibited differential modulation as revealed from their expression patterns in pollutant-exposed fish hepatocytes, in comparison with the control fish hepatocytes. The results suggested that in spite of the prevalence of oxidative stress in pollutant-exposed fish hepatocytes, the stress-mediated induction of HSP90α enabled the hepatocytes to become stress tolerant and to survive by modulating the actions of key proteins and kinases in the signal transduction pathways.