Heat Shock Proteins in Cardiovascular Diseases: From Bench to Bedside

Heat shock proteins (HSP) are stress proteins induced in response to a wide variety of physiological and environmental insults. HSP function as molecular chaperones and they are required to maintain the proteome in a folded and functional state, allowing the cells to survive stress conditions. These key proteins, which may be located intracellularly or extracellularly, have multiple functions that range from the regulation of essential cells function to the renaturation of misfolded proteins. In the last decades, the HSP involvement in both normal cell function and disease pathogenesis is widely studied, especially in the context of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). This chapter covers the current knowledge on the function HSP in the cardiovascular system and particular in the relationship between these proteins and CVDs. Initially, the roles of HSP in cardiovascular health are outlined, followed by an evaluation of the role of HSP in CVDs key processes, such as atherosclerosis, vascular hypertrophy and heart failure. Finally, the therapeutic potential of roles HSP are examined in a CVDs context, considering how the knowledge actually gained may be capitalized in future clinical studies.