Stress proteins are proinflammatory in vivo: implications for bioengineers

Fibrosis of biosensors, placed in vivo, represents a major hurdle to the widespread application of real-time monitoring of biochemical and metabolic processes in animals and humans. The fibrotic reaction is the end result of the acute inflammatory response caused by significant tissue trauma at the time of biosensor placement in vivo and is probably associated with increased expression of cellular stress proteins acutely. We tested the hypothesis that subcutaneous injection of stress proteins will cause acute inflammatory swelling in a murine model in vivo. Comparisons between groups were preformed using the Student\´s t-test and significance accepted when p<0.05. Subcutaneous injection of stress proteins, HSP70 or GRIP78, was associated with significantly increased acute swelling in this in vivo murine model in comparison to serum or heated serum alone. Stress proteins, within the acute wound environment, are proinflammatory and as such support the concept of their behavior as "chaperokines"