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Abstract

METHOD OF SCREENING PHYSIOLOGICAL SAMPLES for elevated levels of heat shock proteins due to chronic exposure to sublethal levels of stressors, and kits for carrying out the method, are disclosed. The methods comprise: conducting first and second assays at different times, each assay comprising: (a) sampling by removing a physiological sample from the organism under sampling conditions that do not induce a heat shock protein response in the organism; (b) measuring the concentration in the sample of at least one heat shock protein selected from the group consisting of hsp 20-30, hsp 60, hsp 70, hsp 90 and ubiquitin; and (c) comparing the heat shock protein concentrations measured in the first and second assays and considering the organism to have been chronically exposed to one or more stressors if the concentrations are at least about 2 times above a baseline heat shock protein concentration corresponding to an unstressed physiological sample and the measured concentrations do not vary more than about 50% one from the other. The invention also provides methods for medically screening for biological damage due to chronic of an organism to a stressor by the above method and then comparing the measured concentration of hsp to a predetermined standard calibration curve which correlates hsp concentration with physiological impairment of growth or reproductive processes, and kits for carrying out the methods.

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