Comprehensive analysis of human tissues reveals unique expression and localization patterns of HSF1 and HSF2

Abstract

Heat shock factors (HSFs) are the main transcriptional regulators of the evolutionarily conserved heat shock response. Beyond cell stress, several studies have demonstrated that HSFs also contribute to a vast variety of human pathologies, ranging from metabolic diseases to cancer and neurodegeneration. Despite their evident role in mitigating cellular perturbations, the functions of HSF1 and HSF2 in physiological proteostasis have remained inconclusive. Here, we analyzed a comprehensive selection of paraffin-embedded human tissue samples with immunohistochemistry. We demonstrate that both HSF1 and HSF2 display distinct expression and subcellular localization patterns in benign tissues. HSF1 localizes to the nucleus in all epithelial cell types, whereas nuclear expression of HSF2 was limited to only a few cell types, especially the spermatogonia and the urothelial umbrella cells. We observed a consistent and robust cytoplasmic expression of HSF2 across all studied smooth muscle and endothelial cells, including the smooth muscle cells surrounding the vasculature and the high endothelial venules in lymph nodes. Outstandingly, HSF2 localized specifically at cell–cell adhesion sites in a broad selection of tissue types, such as the cardiac muscle, liver, and epididymis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically describe the expression and localization patterns of HSF1 and HSF2 in benign human tissues. Thus, our work expands the biological landscape of these factors and creates the foundation for the identification of specific roles of HSF1 and HSF2 in normal physiological processes.