The critical roles of HSC70 in physiological and pathological processes.

The heat stress cognate 70 is one of the major cytoplasmic chaperones to supply a multitude of the housekeeping chaperoning functions. In addition to its high constitutive expression, recent studies have demonstrated that it is also inducible. Another exciting discovery is that the regulation of heat stress cognate 70 plays important roles in the aging process and aging-related diseases. Besides the chaperone functions, heat stress cognate 70 is involved in the inflammatory signal pathways via extracellular interaction with TLR2/TLR4. Furthermore, studies have validated the ability of extracellular heat stress cognate 70 to regulate cancer cell proliferation and sperm storage. The discovery of heat stress cognate 70 secretion, in normal and cancer cells undergoing stress, presents novel therapeutic strategies.