The role of Vimentin in the changes in cell shape and motility that accompany epithelial to mesenchymal transitions

Vimentin is a cannonical marker of normal embryogenic epithelial to mesenchymal transitions (EMT) as well as those that accompany metastasis and the progression of diseases such as fibrosis. Yet the functional implications of the expression of this Type III intermediate filament (IF) protein are poorly understood. My results show that vimentin IF (VIF) are sufficient to induce epithelial cells to adopt mesenchymal-like cell shapes. Coincident with changes in shape, epithelial cells expressing VIF lose desmosomal contacts and increase the rate of exchange of the focal adhesion component paxillin. Conversely, the loss of VIF in mesenchymal cells results in their transition to more epithelioid shapes. These findings support the role of VIF in the regulation of cell adhesion.