['Our objective was to characterize the heat shock response (HSR) in a model of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to determine the association of HSR to cell death.', 'We used immunofluorescent detection of HSP-70 to characterize HSR and TUNEL labeling to determine the pattern of cell death.', 'HSP-70 immunofluorescence revealed a steady increase from 4 to 48 hours following TBI, culminating in a ubiquitous expression with the capillary bed 48 hours post-TBI. TUNEL labeling revealed a small subset of endothelial cell death and a most robust staining of putative pericyte cell death.'] Does brain endothelial HSP-70 stress response coincide with endothelial and pericyte death after brain trauma?