ABSTRACT
The stress response, or heat shock response, is a fundamental molecular mechanism with which organisms compensate for environmentally induced perturbations of cellular function. More than 500 publications examine the relationships between the stress response and the other subjects in this volume (e.g., reactive oxygen species, ischemia-reperfusion injury, inflammation). The stress response initially attracted considerably attention as a model system for investigating gene structure and regulation. In addition, the stress response provided one of the first examples of selective gene expression operating at the level of translation. Diverse aspects of the stress response are consistent with stress proteins serving as molecular chaperones. An essential component of chaperoning activity is thus the ability of stress proteins to “recognize” interactive sites that are normally sequestered in the interior of properly folded proteins. The chapter concludes with examples of engineered stress tolerance to advocate the exploitation of such systems to understand the cell biology of trauma.
