Vimentin is a cytoskeletal intermediate filament present in most cultured cells, embryonic mesenchymal and endodermal cells, and adult mesenchyme-derived cells. It is also expressed in certain pathological conditions — for example, in renal proximal tubule cells recovering from ischemia. Whether it has a significant role in vivo is debatable; however,given that vimentin-null (Vim-/-) mice appear normal, the filament might simply be a marker for dedifferentiated cells. Fabiola Terzi and co-workers have investigated its role by comparing Vim-/- and wild-type renal proximal tubule cells. They observe that the Vim-/- cells exhibit dramatically reduced Na+-glucose cotransport and that this correlates with reduced levels of the cotransporter SGLT1 in lipid rafts. The authors show that methyl-β-cyclodextrin (an extracellular cholesterol acceptor that disrupts rafts) produces similar effects in wild-type cells. Significantly,they also show that vimentin normally associates with rafts but disappears following methyl-β-cyclodextrin treatment. Terzi and co-workers...

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