Epithelial cell migration requires the interaction between the vimentin and keratin intermediate filaments

Epithelial migration plays a central role in development, wound repair and tumor metastasis, but the role of intermediate filament in this important event is unknown. We showed recently that vimentin coexists in the same cell with keratin-KRT14 at the leading edge of the migrating epidermal cells, and knockdown of vimentin impaired colony growth. Here we demonstrate that vimentin co-localizes and co-immunoprecipitates with keratin-KRT14, and mutations in the -YRKLLEGEE-sequence of vimentin significantly reduced migration of the keratinocytes. Our data demonstrates that keratinocyte migration requires the interaction between vimentin and keratins at the -YRKLLEGEE-sequence at the helical 2B domain of vimentin. These findings have broad implications for understanding the roles of vimentin intermediate filaments in normal and neoplastic epithelial cells.