COMPARISON OF THE HEAT-SHOCK RESPONSE IN ETHNICALLY AND ECOLOGICALLY DIFFERENT HUMAN-POPULATIONS

In response to heat shock or other metabolic insults, an increased exp ression of different heat shock proteins (hsps) and, in particular, me mbers of the hsp70 family is observed in human cells. Using two-dimens ional electrophoresis, we compared the pattern of hsp70 synthesis in h uman fibroblast cell lines isolated from two contrasting groups of ind ividuals. The first group was represented by native Turkmen living in the hot desert of Middle Asia; the second group consisted of Russians living in moderate climatic regions of European Russia. This analysis has shown that fibroblasts isolated from Turkmen after severe heat sho ck exhibited intensive synthesis of all hsps in parallel with synthesi s of many other cellular proteins, while only trace synthesis of hsps was observed in the second group (Russians). Surprisingly, Northern an alysis of RNA synthesis failed to reveal any differences between the t wo groups after heat shock treatment. When survival of fibroblasts aft er severe heat shock treatment was assessed by colony formation assay, the cells of the first group exhibited significantly higher survival rates.