Intestinal expression and cellular immune responses to human heat-shock protein 60 in Crohn's disease

Changes in the intestinal expression of the endogenous human 60-kDa heat-shock protein (HSP60) were investigated in patients with Crohn's disease. HSP60 immunoreactivity was detected in epithelial cells, vascular smooth muscle, and nerve cell bodies of both small and large bowel from patients with Crohn's disease. However, control tissue showed a similar pattern of HSP60 expression. Western blot analysis confirmed that the HSP60 immunoreactivity detected in the intestine corresponded to the 60-kDa HSP. The proliferative response of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) and intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) to recombinant human HSP60 was examined. The results indicate that there was no significant difference in responses between patients with Crohn's disease and controls. Furthermore, there was no increase in the proportion of gamma/delta T cell receptor-bearing T cells in PBL from patients with Crohn's disease cultured for six days in the presence of human HSP60 as compared to control patients. These results suggest that endogenous human HSP60 is unlikely to be a target for an autoimmune response in patients with Crohn's disease.