ABSTRACT
Vimentin is the most widely distributed intermediate filament (IMF) protein, since it is expressed in virtually all mesenchymal cells in vivo, as well as by most other cell types in culture [1,2]. Vimentin is also found in some specialized types of epithelium, namely, lens epithelium and glomerular podocytes [3-5]. Although early investigations of IMF proteins indicated that only one IMF could be found in a given cell type, more extensive studies have determined that two may be coexpressed in a single cell. Under such circumstances, one of those filaments is always vimentin [6, 7] .
