MECHANISMS OF AUTOPROTECTION AND THE ROLE OF STRESS-PROTEINS IN NATURAL DEFENSES, AUTOPROTECTION, AND SALUTOGENESIS

We hypothesize that in all physiotherapeutically oriented procedures o f naturotherapy - such as helio-, climate-, thalasso- or hydrotherapy or certain forms of physical exercise - the transient expression of st ress-proteins (heat-shock proteins, HSPs) is an important element of s alutogenesis. These therapeutical procedures all cause a transitory 'd isturbance' by an unspecific stressor that leads to functional respons es. These functional responses can be trained and thus increase the fo rces and the capacity for resistance of the organism. The autoprotecti ve mechanisms which we want to deal with in more detail are based on t he functions of the heat-shock proteins (HSPs, stress-response protein s, 'chaperones') and represent archaic autoprotective responses. In ad dition, more complex mechanisms of autoprotection seem to have evolved that may play a role in the natural defenses against disease and whic h show a hierarchy of various genomically conserved strategies with di fferent time-constants and time windows. This becomes apparent by stud ying autoprotective responses of the cardiovascular system of warm-blo oded animals under ischemic stress. Recent extensive experimental prot ocols and clinical observations in elucidating the molecular basis of cardiac ischemia show that powerful autoprotective mechanisms are invo lved in the phenomena of 'hibernation', 'stunning', and 'ischemic prec onditioning'. The system of the heat-shock proteins may therefore be r egarded as a basic model for the principle of autoprotection and salut ogenesis.