Physics Commons^™

Vimentin Tunes Cell Migration On Collagen By Controlling Β1 Integrin Activation And Clustering, Zofia Ostrowska-Podhorodecka, Isabel Ding, Wilson Lee, Jelena Tanic, Sevil Abbasi, Pamma D. Arora, Richard S. Liu, Alison E. Patteson, Paul A. Janmey, Christopher A. Mcculloch

Physics - All Scholarship

Vimentin is a structural protein that is required for mesenchymal cell migration and directly interacts with actin, β1 integrin and paxillin. We examined how these interactions enable vimentin to regulate cell migration on collagen. In fibroblasts, depletion of vimentin increased talin-dependent activation of β1 integrin by more than 2-fold. Loss of vimentin was associated with reduction of β1 integrin clustering by 50% and inhibition of paxillin recruitment to focal adhesions by more than 60%, which was restored by vimentin expression. This reduction of paxillin was associated with 65% lower Cdc42 activation, a 60% reduction of cell extension formation and a …