Although both the heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and the activating transcription factor 5 (ATF5) have been shown to promote cell survival of transformed cells but not survival of non-transformed cells, the relationship of the two molecules is unknown. Here we show that HSP70 and ATF5 are concomitantly up-regulated upon transient but down-regulated over prolonged cellular stress and apoptotic stimulation in the rat C6 glioma and human U87 glioma cells. HSP70 interacts strongly with the N-terminal activation domain of ATF5, which is expected to be rigid and uniquely structured under physiological conditions because of extraordinary high concentration (over 25%) of proline residues. Binding of HSP70 to ATF5 is an ATP-driven process and requires functional ATPase on the nucleotide binding domain of the HSP70 molecule. Overexpression of HSP70 dramatically stabilizes the ATF5 protein, which is otherwise subject to rapid degradation, facilitated by both proteasome-dependent and caspase-dependent processes, whereas HSP70 depletion leads to acceleration of ATF5 degradation and transcription repression of Bcl-2 and Egr-1, which are downstream targets of ATF5 in C6 and U87 glioma cells. Our data reveal an essential role for HSP70 in maintaining high levels of ATF5 expression in glioma cells and support the conclusion that ATF5 is an important substrate protein of HSP70 that mediates HSP70-promoted cell survival in glioma cells.Glioblastoma is the most common form of primary brain tumor that responds poorly to conventional therapy. The average survival time from diagnosis is less than 1 year (1, 2). These tumors, arising either from astrocytes or their progenitor cells, escape most normal cell growth and cell death control mechanisms (3).The stress-inducible HSP70 2 (also known as HSP72 or iHSP70) is a molecular chaperone that plays an essential role in protein folding, stability, and turnover. HSP70 is highly expressed in malignant tumors of various origins, and its expression correlates with increased cell proliferation, poor differentiation, lymph node metastases, and poor therapeutic outcome in human cancer (4 -7). In support of its role in promoting tumorigenesis via its prosurvival function, overexpression of HSP70 effectively inhibits cell death induced by a wide range of stimuli, including several cancer-related stresses like hypoxia, inflammatory cytokines, monocytes, irradiation, oxidative stress, and anticancer drugs. Indicating a cancer-specific cell survival function of HSP70, depletion of HSP70 induces massive apoptotic death in tumorigenic cells but not in nontumorigenic epithelial cells or embryonic fibroblasts (8, 9). These lines of evidence suggest that HSP70 is required for protecting certain vulnerable proteins whose function is essential and specific for the survival of cancer cells. The HSP70 molecule, as all other members of the HSP70 family, has a modular structure that consists of an N-terminal nucleotide binding domain and a C-terminal substrate binding domain, connected by a short linker (10). The...