Coordination of chemical (trimethylamine oxide) and molecular (heat shock protein 70) chaperone responses to heat stress in elasmobranch red blood cells.

Chemical and molecular chaperones are organic compounds that protect and stabilize proteins from damage and aggregation as a result of cellular stress. Using the dogfish (Squalus acanthias) red blood cell (RBC) as a model, we examined whether elasmobranch cells with naturally high concentrations of the chemical chaperone trimethylamine oxide (TMAO) would induce the molecular chaperone heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) when exposed to an acute thermal stress. Our hypothesis was that TMAO is itself capable of preventing damage and preserving cellular function during thermal stress and thus that the heat shock response would be inhibited/diminished. We incubated RBCs in vitro with and without physiologically relevant concentrations of TMAO at 13°C and then exposed cells to a 1-h acute heat shock at 24°C. HSP70 protein expression was elevated in dogfish RBCs after the acute heat stress, but this induction was inhibited by extracellular TMAO. Regardless of the presence of TMAO and/or HSP70, we did not observe any cell damage, as indicated by changes in caspase 3/7 activity, protein carbonyls, membrane viability, or levels of ubiquitin. We also saw no change in RBC cell function, as determined by hemoglobin oxygen affinity or carrying capacity, in cells lacking the heat shock response but protected by TMAO. This study demonstrates that there is cellular coordination between chemical and molecular chaperones in response to an acute thermal stress in dogfish RBCs and suggests that TMAO has a thermoprotective role in these cells, thus eliminating the need for a heat shock response.