OBJECTIVE: To summarize the relationship between heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and cerebral ischemia.DATA SOURCES: An online search of Medline database was undertaken to identify relevant articles published in English from January 1980 to December 2005 by using the keywords of “heat shock protein 70, ischemia”. Meanwhile, Chinese relevant articles published from January 2000 to December 2005 were searched in China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database and Chinese Journal of Clinical Rehabilitation with the keywords of “heat shock protein 70, cerebral ischemia” in Chinese.STUDY SELECTION: More than 100 related articles were screened, and 29 references mainly about HSP70 and cerebral ischemia were selected, including basic and clinical researches. As to the articles with similar content, those published in the authoritative journals in recent 3 years were preferential.DATA EXTRACTION: A total of 29 articles were collected and classified according to the structure, function and clinical application of HSP70. Among them, 1 article is about the structure of HSP70, 27 about the relationship between HSP70 and cerebral ischemia, and 2 about the clinical application of HSP70. DATA SYNTHESIS: HSP70 is one of the most conservative proteins during biological evolution. Experiments in cerebral ischemia revealed that HSP70 expression was time-dependent, also correlated with the injured site and severity. The cerebral ischemia induced HSP70 gene expression in hippocampus of gerbil had protection to tolerance of fatal ischemic injury for neurons. The increase of HSP70 expression may be one of the endogenous protective mechanisms during cerebral ischemia, and can effectively alleviate cerebral ischemia. Thus HSP70 protein and HSP70 mRNA have been taken as important indexes extensively applied in the basic study of cerebral ischemia by some scholars abroad.CONCLUSION: HSP70 plays a protective role in cerebral ischemia, and a deeper research into the biological function of HSP70 will provide a new way for the therapy of cerebral ischemia. OBJECTIVE: To summarize the relationship between heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and cerebral ischemia. DATA SOURCES: An online search of Medline database was undertaken to identify relevant articles published in English from January 1980 to December 2005 by using the keywords of “heat shock protein 70, ischemia ”. Meanwhile, Chinese relevant articles published from January 2000 to December 2005 were searched in China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database and Chinese Journal of Clinical Rehabilitation with the keywords“ heat shock protein 70, cerebral ischemia ”in Chinese.STUDY SELECTION: More than 100 related articles were screened, and 29 references mainly about HSP70 and cerebral ischemia were selected, including basic and clinical researches. As to the articles with similar content, those published in the authoritative journals in recent 3 years were preferential. DATA EXTRACTION: A total of 29 articles were collected and classified according to the structure, functio n and clinical application of HSP70. Among them, 1 article is about the structure of HSP70, 27 about the relationship between HSP70 and cerebral ischemia, and 2 about the clinical application of HSP70. DATA SYNTHESIS: HSP70 is one of the most conservative proteins during biological evolution. Experiments in cerebral ischemia revealed that HSP70 expression was time-dependent, also correlated with the injured site and severity. The cerebral ischemia induced HSP70 gene expression in hippocampus of gerbil had protection to tolerance of fatal ischemic injury for neurons. HSP70 expression may be one of the endogenous protective mechanisms of cerebral ischemia, and can be alleviated by acute ischemia; and HSP70 mRNA have been taken as important indexes extensively applied in the basic study of cerebral ischemia by some scholars abroad. CONCLUSION: HSP70 plays a protective role in cerebral ischemia, and a deeper research into the biological function of HSP70 will provide a new way for the therapy of cerebral ischemia.