What is Vimentin?
There are three main kinds of cytoskeletal filaments: microfilaments, microtubules, and intermediate filaments in Eukaryotic cells. Intermediate filaments help to provide structure to cells, and are involved in cell movement. Vimentin, a 57kDa intermediate filament protein, which is a class III intermediate filament protein and often found in mesenchymal cells in eukaryotes, or cells that contain a distinct nucleus, and predominately expressed in developing embryo and in cells. Vimentin intermediate filaments are in general present in mesenchymal cells. Vimentin is found not only in eukaryotic cells, but also in bacteria, where it helps form the cytoskeleton. Vimentin is encoded by VIM gene, 57kDa Protein, and have 466 amino acids, VIM gene is highly conserved in vertebrates, VIM gene also involved in the immune response, and controls the transport of low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-derived cholesterol from a lysosome to the site of esterification.
Function of Vimentin
Vimentin plays a significant role in holding cellular structures of the organelles in the cytosol, this protein has a flexible nature, allowing it to respond to mechanical stress. It interacts with other structural proteins, like microtubules, to make the cell rigid and sturdy. Studies performed on cells without vimentin found that they were functional, but very easily damaged when exposed to pressure. It was found that cells without vimentin are extremely delicate when disturbed with a micropuncture. Vimentin is attached to the nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, and mitochondria, either laterally or terminally. As an organizer of a number of critical proteins, vimentin function involved in attachment, migration, and cell signaling.
Except for it maintains cellular integrity, stabilizes cytoskeleton interactions and provides resistance to avoid cells damage, vimentin also has an important clinical significance as a tumor marker. All intermediate filament proteins are expressed in a highly developmentally-regulated fashion; vimentin is the major cytoskeletal component of mesenchymal cells. vimentin is a widely expressed and highly conserved that is constitutively expressed in mesenchymal cells. Because of this, vimentin is often used as a marker of mesenchymally-derived cells or cells undergoing an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) during both normal development and metastatic progression. Vimentin IF proteins have been implicated in many aspects of cancer initiation and progression, including tumorigenesis, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, and the metastatic spread of cancer.
VIM antibody usually as a marker used for mesenchymal in histopathological diagnosis, and often with keratin to distinguish epithelial and mesenchymal tumors, such as identification of malignant melanoma, lymphoma and thymoma; VIM antibody and leukocyte common antigen to distinguish lymphoma and other mesenchymal tumors; VIM antibody and myogenic cell markers often identifiy myogenic and fibrous tumors, etc.
Vimentin Products
Creative Diagnostics offers a wide range of Vimentin related products such as vimentin proteins, antibodies, elisa kits, hybridomas, engineered antibodies and cDNA products for use in common research applications: ELISA, Flow Cytometry, Immunocytochemistry, Immunofluorescence, Immunohistochemistry, Immunoprecipitation, Intracellular Staining by Flow Cytometry, Peptide ELISA, Sandwich ELISA, Simple Western, Western Blot.