We hypothesized that the heat-shock response modulates contractility of vascular smooth muscles. Human radial arteries strips were mounted in organ baths, exposed to 42 ��� for 45 min, and returned to equilibrate at 37 ���. This study examined gene expression profile associated with heat-shock response in radial arteries of patients with hyperlipidemia by using a high-density microarray that contained 5,763 human cDNA. The results of a microarray hybridization experiment from four different radial arteries were analyzed and classified by the Cluster program. Among these differentially-expressed genes, HSP70, HSP10 and HSP60 were significantly increased by the heat shock response and 15 genes also increased, 22 genes decreased in non-HSP genes. Among these 37 genes, crystallin, alpha B (CRYAB) (up 1.92- fold), myosin, light polypeptide kinase (MYLK) transcript variant 8,6 (up 1.70 -fold, up 1.68- fold ), catenin (cadherin-associated protein, alpha-like 1 (CTNNAL1) ) (down-0.57 fold) and tropomyosin 3 (TPM3) (down 0.68- fold) were thought to be related with the contraction. In conclusion, our data showed the gene expression profile by heat shock and these results suggested that these genes may play a pivotal role in the augmentation of vascular contraction after heat shock.