Dr. Qiang Guo and Dr, Jing Yang published a paper in PNAS.
Neutrophils, the most abundant immune cells in the body, exhibit heavily segmented nuclei, but the mechanism responsible for this subcellular morphology is incompletely understood. This study utilized cryo-electron tomography to image mouse neutrophils and identified vimentin, a cytoplasmic intermediate-filament protein, as a key protein involved in nuclear segmentation. The genetic deletion of vimentin reduced the number of nuclear lobes of neutrophils and eosinophils, mimicking the Pelger–Huët anomaly. These findings offer insights into the unique nuclear morphology of neutrophils, which may have important implications for understanding their immune functions in various pathophysiological contexts. In addition, this study highlights the potentially broad involvement of cytoplasmic intermediate-filament proteins in shaping the structure of nuclei, opening an exciting research avenue in cell biology.
Original link: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2307389120.
