Heat shock proteins in renal injury and recovery.

Heat shock proteins, or stress proteins, are molecular chaperones responsible for protein processing and protection against cellular injury through the prevention of inappropriate peptide interactions. The distribution of individual stress proteins varies between regions of the kidney and within subcellular compartments both in normal and pathological conditions. Novel molecular chaperones have been identified in renal medullary cells which are unique, among mammalian cells, in routinely facing osmotic stress. Heat shock proteins can participate in renal injury as antigenic targets, but their primary role is beneficial, and these proteins may function by interacting with the cytoskeleton to protect against and assist recovery from cellular injury.