Vimentin expression in cervical carcinomas : association with invasive and migratory potential

Vimentin is an intermediate filament protein normally expressed in mesenchymal cells, but evidence is accumulating in the literature which suggests that the aberrant expression of vimentin in epithelial cancer cells might be related to local invasiveness and metastatic potential. Vimentin expression has previously been associated with invasive properties in an in vitro model consisting of a set of HPV-33-transformed cervical keratinocyte cell lines. In the present study, in order to emphasize those in vitro findings, the expression of vimentin has been investigated in cervical neoplasms of different grades, using immunohistochemistry. A clear association is reported between vimentin expression and metastatic progression, since vimentin was detected in all invasive carcinomas and lymph node metastases, but not in CIN III lesions. These in vivo results are compared with present and previous data obtained in vitro on cervical keratinocyte cell lines, where vimentin expression also correlated with in vitro invasiveness.