HSF Modulates Neural Development Under Normal and Stress Conditions

Abstract

Over the last decade, laboratories working with knockout mice have contributed data substantiating that heat shock factors 1 and 2 (HSF1, HSF2) play critical roles in the normal development of the central nervous system. More recent studies have determined that these factors also play critical, but altered, roles during pathological brain development elicited by prenatal exposure to environmental stress. Those researches have, in fact, provided new insights into the roles of heat shock factors at the molecular level in both normal and pathological brain development, strengthening the view that the malresponse of HSFs to environmental stress is predisposed or highly influenced by genetic mutations associated with the incidence of neuropsychiatric disorders. In this chapter, we summarize the roles of HSFs in both normal and pathological brain development with a primary focus on the cerebral cortex and discuss potential mechanisms governing the multifaceted roles of HSFs under both normal and pathological conditions.