Fig. 3: Intermediate filament assembly and integrated roles of vimentin in mechanical stability, cytoskeletal organization.
From: Roles of cytoskeleton in metastasis: from its mechanism to therapeutic strategies
a Intermediate filaments are assembled through a stepwise self-assembly process, and the phosphorylation of their subunits induces filament disassembly. b Vimentin forms a perinuclear network that protects the nucleus from compressive stress and enhances the cell adhesion to viscoelastic matrices, thereby promoting cell spreading. Vimentin also anchors intracellular organelles and maintains the spatial architecture. In the illustration, vimentin intermediate filaments are depicted as blue lines.
