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A. Graham Pockley, Cross-Sectional Correlates of Serum Heat Shock Protein 70 in the Community, American Journal of Hypertension, Volume 19, Issue 2, February 2006, Pages 232–233, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjhyper.2005.11.002
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The article by Dhingra et al1 in this issue of the Journal reports data from a cross-sectional study in which the authors used a commercially available enzyme immunoassay kit to measure levels of circulating heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) in samples from 456 participants in the Framingham Offspring Study. The authors have related circulating levels of Hsp70 to a number of parameters that are associated with the presence of cardiovascular disease and disproved their hypothesis that serum levels of Hsp70 are related to the presence and levels of established risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) such as hypertension, as well as to markers of oxidative stress and inflammation, subclinical CVD (as assessed by left ventricular [LV] mass), and prevalent CVD. The authors conclude that “blood levels of Hsp70 may not adequately reflect the important role of heat shock proteins in prevalent CVD.”
In part, at least, this study confirms previous work that has reported that levels of Hsp70 in patients with hypertension are not significantly different from those in control subjects, and that there is no relationship between Hsp70 levels and blood pressure.2 This study also confirms that the relationships between different circulating stress proteins and established risk factors for cardiovascular disease differ, as circulating Hsp60 (but not Hsp70) levels have been shown to be associated with borderline hypertension, diastolic blood pressure, 24-h systolic blood pressure and carotid intima-media (I-M) thickness, as well as very–low-density lipoprotein and triglyceride levels.3 Circulating Hsp60 and Hsp70 also appear to influence differentially the induction and progression of cardiovascular disease because, although serum Hsp60 levels are associated with the carotid I-M thickness (a measure of early atherosclerosis) in clinically normal individuals, levels of Hsp70 are not.3 The observation that increases in carotid I-M thicknesses at a 4-year follow-up are significantly less prevalent in subjects with established hypertension with high levels of circulating Hsp70 at enrollment suggests that elevated levels of Hsp70 protect against, rather than exacerbate, cardiovascular disease.4 The finding that circulating Hsp70 levels in individuals evaluated for coronary artery disease were higher in patients without evidence of coronary artery disease in a cross-sectional study supports this concept.5
