Intermediate filament aggregation: effect on cell topology, cell spreading and surface transport
Sanger, J.W.; Sanger, J.M.
European Journal of Cell Biology 21(1): 67-71
1980
ISSN/ISBN: 0171-9335 PMID: 7189712 Document Number: 165717
When chick fibroblasts are treated with cytochalasin-B and then transferred to medium containing colcemid, they become very flat and acquire corrugations on the apical cell surface. Bundles of intermediate filaments are found beneath the cell membrane in the troughs of the corrugations. When subcultured in colcemid, the cells retain the bundles of intermediate filaments and corrugations, and spread out both on untreated surfaces and on surfaces coated with Au particles. Au particles are transported over the apical surface and phagocytosed by the cell. There is no accumulation of Au particles on the membrane under which the cables of intermediate filaments lie, and phagocytosed Au is excluded from the area occupied by the cables. A cell apparently does not need microtubules and (a normal distribution of) intermediate filaments in order to spread, or to pick up, transport and phagocytose particulate material. The experimental aggregation of intermediate filaments does, however, alter the cell topology and the way in which particles are transported over the surface and ingested.