The heat shock proteins (HSPs) comprise a group of highly conserved, abundantly expressed proteins with diverse functions, including the assembly and sequestering of multiprotein complexes, transportation of nascent poly-peptide chains across cellular membranes, and the regulation of protein folding. HSP60 has primarily been known as a mitochondrial protein that is important for folding key proteins after import into the mitochondria. An additional role of HSP 60 is to act as a cell surface marker for γ/δ T cell recognition.
