Antibodies to the 70-kDa Heat-Shock Protein in Patients with Thermal Burns

Abstract Autoantibodies in the sera of patients with thermal burns, which hind to a protein in the intercellular substance of the epidermis, have been previously described. By immunoblot analysis, we have shown that a 68-kDa epidermal protein is the predominant antigen to which these autoantibodies bind. Our study also demonstrates that this 68-kDa epidermal protein is similar to the bovine brain 70-kDa heat-shock protein (hsp 70). In addition, we have detected significantly elevated levels of IgG antibodies to the bovine brain hsp 70 in all of the sera from random burned patients ( n = 33), in comparison with the levels in the sera of normal, healthy controls ( n = 43, P