Small Stress Proteins

This book surveys the current knowledge concerning the expression and function of small stress proteins (sHsps) in different organisms, ranging from prokaryotes to humans. It provides an overview of the diversity and complex evolutionary history of sHsps and describes their function and expression in different eukaryote models. Additional chapters discuss the involvement of sHsps in pathological conditions and gene therapy approaches towards a control of sHsp expression levels.

Inhalt
Evolution and Diversity of Prokaryotic Small Heat Shock Proteins.- Discovery of Two Distinct Small Heat Shock Protein (HSP) Families in the Desert Fish Poeciliopsis.- Chaperone Function of sHSPs.- The Small Heat Shock Proteins of the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.- Drosophila Small Heat Shock Proteins.- The Developmental Expression of Small HSP.- Expression and Phosphorylation of Mammalian Small Heat Shock Proteins.- sHsp-Phosphorylation: Enzymes, Signaling Pathways and Functional Implications.- Small Stress Proteins: Modulation of Intracellular Redox State and Protection Against Oxidative Stress.- Small Stress Proteins: Novel Regulators of Apoptosis Induced Independently of Reactive Oxygen Species.- Hsp27 as Prognostic and Predictive Factor in Cancer.- Cytoskeletal Competence Requires Protein Chaperones.- Hsp27 in the Nervous System: Expression in Pathophysiology and in the Aging Brain.- Protection of Neuronal and Cardiac Cells by Hsp27.