Microfilaments, microtubules, and intermediate filaments in cultured corneal fibroblasts

Corneal stromal fibroblasts play an important role in wound healing. Proteins from all three cytoskeletal classes (microfilament, microtubule, and intermediate filament) are involved in the control of various cellular events, such as motility, cell adhesion, shape changes, intracellular transport, and mitosis. By epifluorescent light microscopy, we studied the intracellular distributions of actin (microfilament), tubulin (microtubule), and vimentin (intermediate filament), as well as vinculin (a junctional protein connecting microfilaments to the cell membrane), in cultured corneal fibroblasts. Mutual positional relationships between actin and the other cytoskeletal proteins were investigated by double-labeling. Particular attention was paid to the leading edge of spreading or migrating fibroblasts and to their cell-to-cell contacts.