Heat-Shock Protein 70 Attenuates Caspase-3 Activation and DNA Fragmentation Following Focal Cerebral Ischemia

Background: Recently, HSP70 has been shown to act as an inhibitor of apoptotic pathways in the cell culture following heat shock; however, little information is available on the mechanism of neuroprotection after cerebral ischemia. In this study, our purpose is to investigate whether the HSP70 protein can protect apoptotic cell death after focal cerebral ischemia. Methods: hsp70.1 knockout (KO) and wild-type (WT) mice were subjected to transient middle cerebral artery occlusion for 2 hours. At 22 hours, we measured infarction volumes, and detected DNA fragmentation with TUNEL staining. HSP70 and hsp70.1 mRNA expression were analyzed by Western blots and Northern blots, respectively. Caspase-3 activation was examined with Western blots and caspase-3 activity assay. Results: hsp70.1 mRNA was not detected in hsp70.1 KO mice after ischemia, and HSP70 expression was markedly suppressed in KO mice versus WT mice. The infarction volume was significantly larger in the KO (82.19.5 ) than in the WT (58.410.3 ; p0.61/) than in the WT (1.050.35/; p