Molecular mechanisms of brain-gut interactions under stress - HSC 70 gene expression by restraint water-immersion in rats

The long range goal of psychosomatic medicine is to clarify interactions between higher brain function and peripheral organs. To discuss the future direction of psychosomatic medicine, we review our experiment that heat shock cognate protein (HSC) 70 messenger RNA increases in some of stress-vulnerable organs; brain and gut, under psychophysiological stress. In control rats, cerebral HSC 70 mRNAs were constitutively expressed while gastric HSC 70 mRNAs were scarcely identified. Restraint-water immersion stress significantly increased the level of cerebral HSC 70 mRNAs for 6 hrs and 12 hrs. Hypothermia, induced by water immersion, excluded a possible role of hyperthermia in inducing HSC 70 mRNA. Our results point to a crucial cytoprotective role for families of heat shock proteins in stress-vulnerable brain gut link in mammals under psychophysiological stress. Active induction of molecular biology is useful for psychosomatic research.