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Full-Text Articles in Cell and Developmental Biology
A Central Role For Vimentin In Regulating Repair Function During Healing Of The Lens Epithelium, A. S. Menko, B. M. Bleaken, A. A. Libowitz, L. Zhang, Mary Ann Stepp, J. L. Walker
A Central Role For Vimentin In Regulating Repair Function During Healing Of The Lens Epithelium, A. S. Menko, B. M. Bleaken, A. A. Libowitz, L. Zhang, Mary Ann Stepp, J. L. Walker
Anatomy and Regenerative Biology Faculty Publications
Mock cataract surgery provides a unique ex vivo model for studying wound repair in a clinically relevant setting. Here wound healing involves a classical collective migration of the lens epithelium, directed at the leading edge by an innate mesenchymal subpopulation of vimentin-rich repair cells. We report that vimentin is essential to the function of repair cells as the directors of the wound-healing process. Vimentin and not actin filaments are the predominant cytoskeletal elements in the lamellipodial extensions of the repair cells at the wound edge. These vimentin filaments link to paxillin-containing focal adhesions at the lamellipodial tips. Microtubules are involved …