JCI Insight. 2019 Feb 21;4(4). doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.126464.
Small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) comprise an important protein family that is ubiquitously expressed, is highly conserved among species, and has emerged as a critical regulator of protein folding. While these proteins are functionally important for a variety of tissues, an emerging field of cardiovascular research reveals sHSPs are also extremely important for maintaining normal cardiac function and regulating the cardiac stress response. Notably, numerous mutations in genes encoding sHSPs have been associated with multiple cardiac diseases. sHSPs (HSPB5, HSPB6, and HSPB8) have been described as mediating chaperone functions within the heart by interacting with the cochaperone protein BCL-2-associated anthanogene 3 (BAG3); however, recent reports indicate that sHSPs (HSPB7) can perform other BAG3-independent functions. Here, we summarize the cardiac functions of sHSPs and present the notion that cardiac sHSPs function via BAG3-dependent or -independent pathways.
小分子热休克蛋白 (sHSPs) 是一类重要的蛋白质家族，广泛表达，在物种间高度保守，是蛋白质折叠的关键调节因子。尽管这些蛋白质对各种组织的功能非常重要，但心血管研究的一个新兴领域揭示 sHSPs 对于维持正常心脏功能和调节心脏应激反应也非常重要。值得注意的是，编码 sHSPs 的基因突变与多种心脏疾病有关。sHSPs（HSPB5、HSPB6 和 HSPB8）被描述为通过与伴侣蛋白 BCL-2 相关的抗凋亡基因 3 (BAG3) 相互作用，在心脏中发挥伴侣蛋白功能；然而，最近的报道表明 sHSPs（HSPB7）可以发挥其他与 BAG3 无关的功能。在这里，我们总结了 sHSPs 的心脏功能，并提出心脏 sHSPs 通过 BAG3 依赖或独立的途径发挥作用的观点。
