Elevated Hsp70 expression protects against cardiac failure. Hearts of transgenic mice that express elevated Hsp70 sustain less damage as a result of an experimental ischemic event. Hsp100 is necessary for propagation of prions in yeast. Aggregates of the Sup35 protein propagate themselves in a reaction that depends on yeast Hsp100. Although mammalian prions are composed of an unrelated protein, experiments with transgenic mice suggest that the species barrier is at least partly imposed by interactions between the prion proteins and a host factor that could be a molecular chaperone.
Neurons are acutely sensitive to stress, possibly because they exhibit little or no stress response.
In contrast, glia and other non-neuronal cells exhibit a robust stress response. Some evidence indicates that a specific mechanism transports Hsps from support cells to neurons during stress.