Editorial Volume 4, Issue 12 pp 856—858

Figure 1. Heat shock proteins reinforce organelle-mediated ionstasis. Extracellular or intracellular stress impairs the function of organelle-specific ion channels, pumps and ion binding proteins (depicted as cylinder, rectangular and oval shapes respectively). Activation of HSF-1 upregulates heat shock protein levels, which in turn contribute to preserve intracellular ion-storage compartments, and prevent runaway perturbation of ionstasis and consequent cell death.