C. elegans Heat Shock Stress Analysis Service

Heat stress (HS) occurs when an organism is exposed to temperatures beyond its optimal survival range, when cells exhibit a heat shock response (HSR) regulated by a series of stress-inducible genes to increase cellular heat tolerance and promote recovery, a highly conserved and prominent pathway. Because HSR is conserved across species and there is a growing interest in how stress responses are integrated to affect lifespan, disease pathology, the technique is widely used to combine with the C. elegans community. C. elegans model is a great choice to study the HS and HSR.

Heat Shock in C. elegans

C. elegans can grow and reproduce at temperatures from 12 °C -26 °C. They are most fecund at temperatures near 16° C and cannot be sustainable at 27 °C. Like other organisms, C. elegans is exquisitely sensitive to maintenance temperature, even slight increases of temperature can elicit the response of heat-shock proteins (HSPs), a family of proteins induced in response to stressful conditions. C. elegans HSR involves 3 major neuroendocrine signaling pathways:

Nuclear Hormone Receptor (NR) Pathway
Transforming Growth Factor-b (TGF-b) Pathway
IGF/insulin-like Signaling (ILS) Pathway

Among them, ILS pathway is the most thoroughly studied, which is implicated in HSPs, HSF-1, and may be useful for understanding cancer, aging, and age-related neurodegenerative diseases in humans.

HSR induction measured with fluorescent reporters. (Golden N L, et al., 2020)

Activation of the heat shock response in C. elegans leads to transcriptional upregulation of heat shock genes (hsp-70 and hsp-16.2). The primary regulator of the HSR is the transcription factor heat shock factor 1 (HSF-1), which is required for growth and development, as deletion of hsf-1 leads to larval stasis. hsf-1 is also important in aging and age-related neurodegenerative diseases. hsf-1 knockdown leads to accumulation of protein aggregates and shortens lifespan, whereas hsf-1 overexpression reduces protein aggregation and extends lifespan.

Our Services

C. elegans, a powerful class of model organisms, can be measured at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels when used in HSR studies. CD BioSciences has developed a variety of C. elegans heat stress research protocols within a uniform standardization, optimal procedures, and tightly controlled operations that are confidently tailored to meet your diverse experimental needs.

Workflow of Our Services

	C. elegans Culture and Synchronization: C. elegans is cultured with NGM at the appropriate temperature (usually 20 °C -25 °C). C. elegans is then synchronized and cultured to the stage required for the experiment.

	Heat Shock Treatment: C. elegans are transferred to pre-warmed petri dishes and then exposed to a specific temperature (30 °C -37 °C) for a certain period.

	Viability Assay: Viability is assessed by counting the number of live worms or by distinguishing live worms from dead worms using a fluorescent dye (propidium iodide).

	Thermotolerance Assay: The thermotolerance of C. elegans is determined by allowing the worms to recover at normal growth temperature and then subjecting them to a second heat treatment using the same parameters as the initial heat excitation.

	Protein Analysis: HSP can be upregulated in response to various stressors. including heat, and techniques such as protein blotting or immunostaining are used to detect and quantify specific HSP.

Applications of C. elegans Heat Shock Stress Analysis

Drug screening for aging and age-related neurodegenerative disease in humans.

Studying aging and longevity.

Studying molecular mechanisms of heat stress response.

CD BioSciences offers a broad and integrated portfolio of laboratory and manufacturing C. elegans environmental stress responses research services, including heat-shock service, which is a widely used method within the C. elegans community to study the impact of stress on physiology, behavior, fecundity, and survival. We specialize in providing customized solutions for C. elegans research, so if you are interested in our services, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Reference

Golden N L, Plagens R N, Guisbert K S K, et al. Standardized methods for measuring induction of the heat shock response in Caenorhabditis elegans[J]. JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments), 2020 (161): e61030.

For research use only.

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