Increased transcription of a major stress gene in spontaneously hypertensive mice.

Environmental stress factors, including temperature, modify the severity of hypertension, a genetic disease. Hypertensive animals and humans respond abnormally to heat exposure, and this abnormality is reflected at the cellular level by an increment in a major stress (heat-shock) gene expression. The present studies demonstrate that increased hsp70 gene expression is due to its heightened transcription rate. The genetic basis of environmental susceptibility to hypertension may thus involve an abnormal control of heat shock genes.