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By indirect immunofluorescence microscopy and electron microscopy, we studied the behavior of intermediate filaments during mitosis in three human epithelial cell lines, derived from normal epidermis (PcaSE-1, from a cancer patient), stratified epithelium (CNE, from nasopharyngeal carcinoma) and simple epithelium (SPC-A-1 from lung adenocarcinoma) respectively. CNE cells and SPC-A-1 cells express two different intermediate filament systems; keratin filaments and vimentin filaments, but PcaSE-1 cells only express keratin filaments. The keratin filament system in PcaSE-1 cells remained intact and encircled the developing mitotic spindle as the cells entered mitosis. In contrast, in CNE cells and SPC-A-1 cells, keratin filaments appeared to disassemble into amorphous cytoplasmic bodies during mitosis. However, their vimentin filaments remained morphologically intact throughout mitosis. We propose; (1) The disassembly of keratin filaments in mitotic epithelial cells is more or less associated with the degree of their cell malignancy rather than with the abundance of keratin filaments in interphase. (2) Intermediate filaments may be involved in the positioning and/or centering of the spindle during mitosis. (3) The possible function of vimentin filament system in CNE cells is positioning and orientation of chromosomes.
R X Chang, and
Q Sun, and
Y W Guo, and
Q R Zhu, and
Y C Pan
January 1983,
Cell and tissue research,
R X Chang, and
Q Sun, and
Y W Guo, and
Q R Zhu, and
Y C Pan
January 1985,
Ultrastructural pathology,
R X Chang, and
Q Sun, and
Y W Guo, and
Q R Zhu, and
Y C Pan
January 1986,
Ultrastructural pathology,
R X Chang, and
Q Sun, and
Y W Guo, and
Q R Zhu, and
Y C Pan
January 1990,
Cell motility and the cytoskeleton,
R X Chang, and
Q Sun, and
Y W Guo, and
Q R Zhu, and
Y C Pan
November 1983,
The Journal of cell biology,
R X Chang, and
Q Sun, and
Y W Guo, and
Q R Zhu, and
Y C Pan
September 1985,
European journal of cell biology,
R X Chang, and
Q Sun, and
Y W Guo, and
Q R Zhu, and
Y C Pan
June 1986,
The Journal of cell biology,
R X Chang, and
Q Sun, and
Y W Guo, and
Q R Zhu, and
Y C Pan
April 2003,
Molecular biology of the cell,
R X Chang, and
Q Sun, and
Y W Guo, and
Q R Zhu, and
Y C Pan
January 1992,
Journal of structural biology,
R X Chang, and
Q Sun, and
Y W Guo, and
Q R Zhu, and
Y C Pan
February 1995,
Cancer research,
