The main findings of this investigation are: 1) obesity increased significantly the expression of the majority HSPs investigated while it had no effect on the expression of HSP-27 and reduced significantly the expression of DNAJB3-HSP-40, 2) the expression levels of HSP-72 in obese subjects are linked to the diabetes status of the study population, and 3) a 3-months physical exercise protocol was sufficient to restore the abnormal expression of HSPs with a concomitant decrease in the inflammatory response. The gene discussed is HSPB1; the disease is diabetes mellitus.