Serum and lymphocyte levels of heat shock protein 70 in aging: a study in the normal Chinese population

Abstract

Heat shock proteins (Hsps) have been reported to play an important role in both physiological and pathological processes. Hsps also may serve as biomarkers for evaluating disease states and exposure to environmental stresses. Whether Hsp levels in serum and lymphocytes are correlated with age and sex is largely unknown. In this study, we analyzed serum Hsp70 (the most abundant mammalian Hsp) levels by using Western dot blot in 327 healthy male donors aged between 15 and 50 years. We also investigated the association between Hsp70 levels and age in lymphocytes of 80 normal individuals aged between 40 and 77 years because various chronic diseases increase after the age of 40 years. Our data showed that serum Hsp70 levels were positively correlated with age in subjects aged between 15 and 30 years (P < 0.05) but negatively correlated with age in subjects aged between 30 and 50 years (P < 0.05). Serum Hsp70 levels were the highest in individuals aged between 25 and 30 years among all age groups. In the lymphocyte study there also was a significant age-related decrease in Hsp70 levels in lymphocytes of individuals older than 40 years. The Hsp70 levels were negatively correlated with age (r = −3.708, P < 0.0001) but not with sex (r = −10.536, P = 0.452). This suggests that both serum and lymphocyte Hsp70 levels are age-related and that these may be linked to age-related stress. Thus, age is an important factor in using serum and lymphocyte Hsp70 as biomarkers to evaluate the disease states or exposure to environmental stresses (or both)

Serum heat shock protein 70 level as a biomarker of exceptional longevity

“…In conclusion, this study confirms the results of our pilot study of serum Hsp70 levels in centenarian offspring compared to controls (Terry et al, 2004) and those of Rea at al (Rea et al, 2001) and Jin et al (Jin et al, 2004), showing that serum Hsp70 levels are lower in those individuals that reach an advanced age. In addition, it suggests that low serum Hsp70 levels are associated with longevity independent of other covariates such as age, gender, race, income, alcohol, cardiovascular disease, and a variety of other age-related diseases.…”

“…The Italian centenarian study demonstrated that there were no differences in intracellular Hsp70 among centenarians versus younger controls; however, this study did not examine serum Hsp70. In agreement with our findings, cross-sectional studies carried-out in Ireland (Rea et al, 2001) and in China (Jin et al, 2004) have demonstrated a decline in serum Hsp70 at older ages. It should be noted, however, that none of these studies, including our own, examined the changes in serum Hsp70 in the same individuals over time.…”

“…They demonstrated a progressive decline in serum Hsp70 levels in older age groups. Similarly, Jin et al (Jin et al, 2004), in their study of 327 healthy male donors aged between 15 and 50 years, demonstrated a decline in serum Hsp70 at older ages (between 30 and 50) although at younger ages, they noted a positive correlation with age. These findings suggest that serum Hsp70 levels decline at older ages although they do not indicate whether levels decline over time within an individual.…”

The role of tonicity responsive enhancer sites in the transcriptional regulation of human hsp70-2 in response to hypertonic stress

“…However, Hsp70 is down-regulated during the aging process in animal model (Heydari et al, 1994). The down-regulation of Hsp70 in aged human cells has also been reported in some tissues or cell culture systems (Muramatsu et al, 1996;Gutsmann-Conrad et al, 1998;Jin et al, 2004;Jurivich et al, 2005). Therefore, further investigation will be needed to determine if the Hsp70 level decreases in aged human renal medullary cells, and whether or not the level of Hsp70 has any relationship with the decreased renal function.…”

Introducing Professor Masataka Mori, Asia-Australian Regional Editor

“…Their report suggests that cytosolic Hsp70 and DnaJ family proteins or Hsp90 (or both) are induced in CCl 4 -treated rat liver where they may be cytoprotective. A second paper represents a collaboration among investigators at Tongji Medical College and Yanan Hospital in China and at Laval University in Canada (Jin et al 2004). They showed that serum Hsp70 levels increased with age between 15 and 30 years but decreased in individuals between the age of 30 and 50.…”