ELEVATED LEVELS OF THE 70 KD HEAT-SHOCK PROTEIN IN PATIENTS WITH SYSTEMIC LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS ARE NOT DEPENDENT ON ENHANCED TRANSCRIPTION OF THE HSP70 GENE
Bm. Twomey et al., ELEVATED LEVELS OF THE 70 KD HEAT-SHOCK PROTEIN IN PATIENTS WITH SYSTEMIC LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS ARE NOT DEPENDENT ON ENHANCED TRANSCRIPTION OF THE HSP70 GENE, Lupus, 2(5), 1993, pp. 297-301
The level of the heat inducible hsp70 protein (hsp72) has been shown t
o be elevated in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of a subset of
SLE patients. We show that this increased level of hsp70 is not depen
dent on enhanced transcription of the hsp70 gene or elevated levels of
the hsp70 mRNA, neither of which are observed in SLE patients with en
hanced protein levels. This indicates that post-transcriptional proces
ses involving either improved translatability of the hsp70 mRNA or inc
reased protein stability are responsible for the observed increase in
protein levels in these patients.