Expression of nuclear lamins in mammalian somatic cells lacking cytoplasmic intermediate filament proteins

Using immunofluorescence and immunoblotting techniques, we have examined the composition of the nuclear lamina in murine plasmacytoma cells, MPC-11, exposed to the phorbol ester TPA as well as in two cell lines devoid of cytoplasmic intermediate filament proteins, the human adrenal cortex carcinoma-derived cells SW-13 and the clone C6-M-D4 derived from the rat glial cell line C6. Our results show that the inhibition of proliferation and the induction of vimentin synthesis observed in TPA-treated MPC-11 populations are not paralleled by changes in the lamin complement of these cells, which contain lamin B but lack lamins A and C. Furthermore, the analysis performed on SW-13 and C6-M-D4 cell lines clearly demonstrates that mammalian somatic cells display considerable variations in lamin expression and indicates that lamin B may be the only lamin species constitutively expressed in mammalian cells.