Impact of heavy metals and organochlorines on hsp70 and hsc70 gene expression in black sea bream fibroblasts

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of environmentally important heavy metals and organochlorines on the transcriptional profiles of genes coding for heat shock cognate 70 (hsc70) and inducible heat shock protein 70 (hsp70) in a black sea bream fibroblast cell line. Using the nucleotide sequence information, from the cloned genes, specific reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) methods were devised to test the effects of heavy metals (Cd2+, Cu2+and Ni2+) and organochlorines (aroclor 1254, hexachlorobenzene and 2-4-dichloroaniline) on the cell stress response. Hsp70 was induced in fibroblasts upon heavy metal exposure concentrations as low as 0.01 μM whereas hsc70 expression was induced upon organochlorine exposure concentrations as low as 0.001 μM. Overall, our findings demonstrate that gene members of the HSP70 family are responsive to environmentally important chemicals.