Gene expression of Hsp70, Hsp90, and Hsp110 families in normal and abnormal embryonic development of mouse forelimbs.

Heat shock proteins (Hsps) are thought of as chaperones of morphologic development of cells and organisms and are believed to be closely related to normal and abnormal embryonic development. It was found, in the present study, that 19 Hsps of the three Hsp70, Hsp90, and Hsp110 families were expressed in embryonic forelimb tissue of normal mice, but in different patterns, showing a characteristic correlation with the developmental phases. The tendency that the expression of many genes changed with embryonic age, increasing in the all-trans retinoic acid (atRA)-induced limb malformation groups, was similar to that of the control group, but messenger RNA abundance of most of these genes was significantly different from that in the control group. HspA12B, HspA14, Trap1, and Hsp105 may be limb-development–related genes; Grp78 may play an important role in limb development.