Modeling Heat Shock Protein Expression While Wearing a Therapeutic Heat Wrap

Hyperthermia mediated repair of injured tissues is attributed to increased blood perfusion and mass transport. A complimentary mechanism of healing may exist where heat shock proteins (HSPs) are over expressed due to local hyperthermia. HSPs are able to stabilize the tertiary structure of nascent proteins and to help re-fold denatured proteins. In this report, we created a temperature model that characterizes the temperature distribution in the dermis, subcutaneous fat, and muscle tissues due to the application a heat source as a commercially marketed heat wrap. The temperature evolution due to the heat wrap was calculated by applying the finite difference version of Pennes’ bioheat equation to the back of a subject consisting of a composite, semi-infinite system geometry. The temperature model included the factors of metabolic heat generation and blood perfusion. The HSP expression was modeled via interpolation of experimental constitutive data. The results show that the over expression of HSPs in the target tissue area likely contribute to the efficacy of the heat wrap.