A heat shock protein (HSP) is a one of group of proteins which increase their expression when the cells which contain them are exposed to high temperatures or other stresses. A large number of proteins in this group share the function of helping other proteins to fold or unfold. They are found in almost all living organisms, from bacteria to humans. Sometimes are they are also called chaperone proteins, since the "help" in protein folding, intracellular trafficking of proteins, and coping with proteins denatured by heat and other stresses.
Heat-shock proteins also occur under non-stressful conditions, simply "monitoring" the cell's proteins. Some examples of their role as "monitors" are that they carry old proteins to the cell's "recycling bin" (proteasome) and they help newly synthesised proteins fold properly.
These activities are part of a cell's own repair system, called the "cellular stress response" or the "heat-shock response".
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