It was suggested that the presence of vimentin in endocrine cells may indicate islet tissue renewal, or potentially represent the dedifferentiation of endocrine cells, which could contribute to the onset of type 2 diabetes or islet cell dysfunction.
In conclusion, islet cell expression of vimentin indicates a degree of plasticity and dedifferentiation with potential loss of cellular identity in diabetes.
We performed a retrospective analysis of clinical data and tubular cell changes using the immunohistochemical expression of vimentin as a marker of tubular injury and dedifferentiation at kidney biopsy in 37 adult MCNS patients.
To this aim, 21 invasive urothelial cell carcinomas of the renal pelvis and 27 high-grade renal cell carcinomas (8 renal cell carcinomas with sarcomatoid dedifferentiation and 5 type 1 and 7 type 2 papillary renal cell carcinomas as well as 7 collecting duct carcinomas) were stained with antibodies directed against protein gene product 9.5, CD10, vimentin, CEA, p63, CK5/6, CK7, CK20, PAX2, PAX8, CD117 (c-Kit), AE1/3, α-methyl CoA racemase, actin, and desmin.