Induction of a heat shock protein in the isolated mammalian retina

The effects of elevated ambient temperature and addition of the psychotropic drug LSD on protein synthesis in the isolated rabbit retina were investigated. Two dimensional gel electrophoresis followed by fluorography of proteins synthesized in vitro demonstrated that synthesis of a heat shock protein of molecular weight 74,000 (74K) was induced by the elevation of temperature and not by the addition of LSD. The appearance of this heat shock protein was shown to be dependent upon the synthesis of new RNA as shown by the addition of actinomycin-D to the incubation medium. The newly synthesized heat shock protein was associated with both nuclear and cytoplasmic fractions.