Session 3: stress response

There is emerging realization that biological systems are capable of eliciting co-ordinated patterns of biochemical alterations in response to various forms of chemical and physical stress. In terms of the toxicity response, it is becoming apparent that such dynamic responses provide a link in biological homeostasis between normal cellular physiology and the more categorical situations of necrotic toxicity or apoptosis. The driving force behind such responses is the need of individual cells to adapt and survive in order to continue defined phenotypic functions in complex tissues. In terms of the molecular mechanisms of adaptation to various stressful situations occurring in and around cells, it is now emerging that certain commonalities exist across a cell specificity barrier and, indeed, between different stressful stimuli. Such stimuli include chemical insult, for instance through the induction of oxidative stress, as well as physical stimuli such as heat shock and UV irradiation. Finally, as we increase our understanding of the molecular processes involved in stress responses, it is now becoming apparent that therapeutic concepts in the treatment of a variety of human diseases may also include the deliberate induction of cell- or tissue-specific stress responses.