Large Intestine and Heat Shock Protein (HSP)

Abstract

All diseases in the large intestine represented by inflammatory bowel disease develop due to destruction of the balance between aggressive factors inducing lesions and defensive factors protecting the mucosa or the body itself. This mechanism is similar to that for the development of gastric lesions. However, compared with gastric disease, the mechanism of large intestinal disease has been studied mainly in terms of aggressive factors inducing mucosal injury but rarely in terms of cytoprotection or mucosal repair. Heat shock protein (HSP) in the large intestine is induced by external stimulation, inflammatory cell infiltration, and stimulation of the intestinal bacterial flora. The induced HSP cytoprotectively acts as a molecular chaperon or by other mechanisms. Therefore, the effective induction of HSP expression has a potentiality for the development of new treatment methods for inflammatory intestinal disease.