AIM To determine which, if any, of five commercially available desmin clones is most reliable at labelling desmin filaments and whether the enhanced polymer one step (EPOS) method of labelling is of any advantage in the routine diagnostic laboratory. METHODS Thirty four rhabdomyosarcomas from the files at The Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London, were studied. Four differen...

Desmosomes are intercellular adhesive complexes that anchor the intermediate filament cytoskeleton to the cell membrane in epithelia and cardiac muscle cells. The desmosomal component desmoplakin plays a key role in tethering various intermediate filament networks through its C-terminal plakin repeat domain. To gain better insight into the cytoskeletal organization of cardiomyocytes, we investi...

The b3and b8-strands and C-terminal residues 155–165 of aB-crystallin were identified by pin arrays as interaction sites for various client proteins including the intermediate filament protein desmin. Here we present data using 5 well-characterised aB-crystallin protein constructs with substituted b3and b8-strands and with the C-terminal residues 155–165 deleted to demonstrate the importance of...

The intermediate filament proteins desmin and vimentin and the muscle tropomyosins were the major protein phosphate acceptors in 8-day-old myotubes incubated for 4 h in medium containing radiolabeled phosphate. The addition of isoproterenol or 8-bromo-cyclic AMP (BrcAMP) resulted in a two- to threefold increase in incorporation of 32PO4 into both desmin and vimentin, whereas no changes in the i...

In the hearts of patients bearing nebulette mutations, a severe general disorganization in cardiomyocytes of the extrasarcomeric desmin intermediate filament system is frequently observed. However, the molecular and functional relationship between the desmin cytoskeleton and nebulette-containing sarcomeres is still unclear. Here we report a high-affinity in vitro interaction between nebulette a...

The typical features of eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage is prolonged loss of muscle strength and the most rapid structural change in the fibers is loss of immunostaining for the intermediate filament protein, desmin. In this study isolated perfused rat muscle was used to examine the direct effect of temperature changes on the eccentric contraction-induced force and desmin loss. The lef...

Skeletal muscle cytoskeletal proteins are receiving more attention recently based on their importance in maintaining muscle integrity, their role in transmitting force throughout the cell, and their involvement in muscle diseases. In this report, the authors focus on the intermediate filament system of skeletal muscle composed of the protein desmin. Desmin is shown to transmit force from myofib...

The intermediate filament proteins desmin and vimentin from pregnant and non-pregnant uterine muscle and smooth-muscle cells in culture were analysed using SDS/PAGE. The desmin content in uterine muscle increases dramatically during pregnancy, whereas vimentin remains unchanged or changes very little. When muscle cells are kept in culture, a considerable increase in vimentin content is observed...