Perinatal expression of heat shock proteins HSC 70 and HSP 70 in neural and non neural tissues of the piglet

Stress of different kinds during early perinatal life can result in severe consequences for further development. To determine possible involvement of heat shock proteins in brain development, the expression of HSC 70 and HSP 70 was determined in brain regions (cerebellum, cortex, hippocampus, hypoth alamus and striatum) and non neural tissues (liver, lungs and kidneys) at b irth and during early development of the piglet. In brain regions, HSC 70 e xpression was decreased during the few hours following birth. With the exce ption of cortex, hippocampus and kidney where a decrease of expression was observed, HSP 70 did not show significant changes during early development. These results are discussed in terms of using the piglet model of developm ent to study the effect of different kinds of stress like hypoxia or temper ature changes on brain development. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BY All rights reserved.