LACK OF ELEVATION OF STRESS-INDUCIBLE HEAT-SHOCK-PROTEIN-70 IN THE FERRET LUNG AFTER CHRONIC CIGARETTE-SMOKE INHALATION

Few investigations have examined in vivo expression of lung heat-shock proteins (HSPs) following environmental stress. This study was perfor med to ascertain if stress-inducible HSP 70 in the ferret lung is elev ated following inhalant exposure to 2 high concentrations of a mixture of mainstream and sidestream cigarette smoke: (a) 381 +/- 97 (SD) mg/ m(3) and (b) 38.2 +/- 13.3 (SD) mg/mg. Ferrets (n = 5 for each concent ration) starting at 5 wk of age were exposed head-only to cigarette sm oke for 2 h/day, 5 days/wk for a total of 15 wk; control ferrets (n = 4) were exposed to filtered air. Samples of the peripheral lung from t he right apical lobe were obtained for analysis by sodium dodecyl sulf ate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), protein immunoblott ing, and subsequent chemiluminescent detection. Results revealed that stress-inducible HSP 70 is present constitutively in the control ferre t lung and is not elevated significantly (p = .7758) in lungs from bot h groups of smoke-exposed ferrets.