EXPERIMENTAL and MOLECULAR MEDICINE, Vol. 37, No. 5, 427-435, October 2005 Heat shock protein 27 interacts with vimentin and prevents insolubilization of vimentin subunits induced by cadmium Jae-Seon Lee1,2*, Mei-Hua Zhang1*, shock protein 27 (HSP27) was colocalized and Eun Kyung Yun1, Dongho Geum3, physically associated with vimentin in unstressed Kyungjin Kim3, Tae-Hyung Kim1, cells, the roles of HSP27 with regard to vimentin were 1 1,4 assessed. HSP27-overexpressing cells prevented Yun-Sook Lim and Jeong-Sun Seo morphological alterations of the vimentin filaments, as well as reductions of soluble vimentin, in the 1ILCHUN Molecular Medicine Institute MRC cadmium-treated cells. Moreover, HSP27 antisense Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology oligonucleotide augmented these cadmium-in- Seoul National University College of Medicine duced changes in vimentin. These findings indicate Seoul 110-799, Korea 2 that HSP27 prevents disruption of the vimentin Laboratory of Functional Genomics intermediate filament networks and soluble vimentin Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences disappearance, by virtue of its physical interaction Seoul 139-706, Korea 3 with vimentin in cadmium-treated SK-N-SH cells. School of Biological Sciences Seoul National University Keywords: apoptosis; cadmium chloride; heat shock Seoul 151-742, Korea protein; mitogen activated protein kinases; molecular 4Corresponding author: Tel, 82-2-740-8246; chaperones; vimentin Fax, 82-2-741-5423; E-mail,
[email protected] *These authors contributed equally to this work. Introduction Accepted 26 August 2005 Vimentin is a major component of intermediate fila- Abbreviation: ERK, extracellular signal-regulated kinase; GST, gluta- ment polypeptide, and forms a highly insoluble net- thione S-transferase; HSP, heat-shock protein; JNK, Jun N-terminal work in the fibroblasts.