Exercise induces expression of the protective heat shock protein, HSP70, in striated muscle. To characterize the relationship between induction of this protein and exercise intensity in muscles exhibiting different recruitment patterns, male Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to a sedentary control or one of seven exercise groups for which treadmill running speed varied between 15 and 33 m/min (n = 8/group). Twenty-four hours after a single 60-min exercise bout, hearts, red and white portions of the vastus (RV and WV, respectively) muscles, and soleus (Sol) muscles were harvested and analyzed for both relative and absolute HSP70 content. Cardiac HSP70 was significantly elevated only when animals were exercised at 24 m/min and beyond. Similarly, HSP70 was elevated in RV at running speeds above 24 m/min but did not increase in WV until 27 m/min. In contrast, HSP70 content was initially elevated in the Sol but subsequently declined at the highest running speeds. The observed patterns of HSP70 expression in skeletal muscle were in general accordance with known muscle recruitment patterns and suggest that alterations in muscle loading, resulting from changes in exercise intensity, are an important component of exercise-induced increases in HSP70 content.

Spleen cells, peripheral lymphocytes, and soleus muscles were removed from male Sprague-Dawley rats that had been run on a treadmill (24 m/min) for either 20, 40, or 60 min or to exhaustion (86 +/- 41 min) and were labeled in vitro with [35S]methionine at 37 degrees C. Similar tissues from nonrunning control rats were labeled in vitro at either 37 or 43 degrees C (heat shock). Fluorographic analyses of one- and two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic separations of the proteins from cells and tissues of exercised rats demonstrate the new or enhanced synthesis of proteins of approximately 65, 72, 90, and 100 kDa. Although synthesis of these proteins is low or not detectable in tissues from control rats labeled at 37 degrees C, they are prominent products of similar tissues labeled under heat-shock conditions (43 degrees C) and, in fact, correspond in Mr and pI with the so-called heat-shock proteins. These results suggest that exercise is a sufficient stimulus to induce or enhance the synthesis of heat shock and/or stress proteins in mammalian cells and tissues.

The most prominent group of stress or heat-shock proteins (HSPs) has an Mr of approximately 70,000 and is collectively referred to as the HSP70 family. The extent of stress inducibility and subcellular location of the various HSP70 isoforms differ, but all appear to be involved with ATP-dependent stabilization or solubilization of proteins. One isoform, termed the inducible isoform of HSP70 (HSP72i), is normally absent in unstressed cells. In a previous study, we detected a protein corresponding in Mr and pI to HSP72i in unstressed rat muscle. Therefore, it was of interest to determine if this expression in unstressed muscle cells is general or confined to specific muscle fiber types. To answer this question we have employed various rat hindlimb muscles that differ in fiber type proportion from predominantly type I (soleus) to predominantly type IIB (white gastrocnemius). Proteins from muscle homogenates were separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, blotted to a nylon membrane, probed with a monoclonal antibody for HSP72i, and visualized using an alkaline phosphatase-conjugated secondary antibody. Immunoblot analyses demonstrate the constitutive expression of HSP72i in rat muscles comprised primarily of type I muscle fibers (soleus), but not in muscles comprised primarily of type IIB fibers (white gastrocnemius). In muscles of mixed fiber type, HSP72i content is roughly proportional to the percentage of type I fibers. These results substantiate that unstressed rat muscles express the inducible HSP72 isoform and demonstrate that its constitutive expression is proportional to the type I muscle fiber composition.

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are, in general, prosurvival molecules within the cellular environment, and the overexpression of even just 1 family of HSPs can lead to protection against and improvements after a variety of stressors. Not surprisingly, a fertile area of study has grown out of efforts to exploit the innate biologic behaviour of HSPs. Exercise, because of the inherent physiologic stresses associated with it, is but 1 stimulus that can result in a robust increase in various HSPs in several tissues, not the least of which happen to be the heart and skeletal muscle. The purpose of this review is to introduce the reader to the major HSP families, the control of their expression, and some of their biologic functions, specifically with respect to the influence of exercise. Moreover, as the first in a series of reviews from a common symposium, we will briefly introduce the concepts presented by the other authors, which include the effects of different exercise paradigms on skeletal muscle HSPs in the adult and aged systems, HSPs as regulators of inflammation, and the ion channel stabilizing effects of HSPs.