Summary
Villin, a 95,000 dalton polypeptide of intestinal brush border which is known to bundle or sever actin filaments in a Ca++-dependent manner, was localized in rat and chicken intestinal epithelium by means of immunocytochemistry at the light- and electron-microscopic levels. Specific antibodies to villin were raised in rabbits immunized with villin purified from chicken intestinal epithelium. Anti-villin bound selectively to the microvillus filament bundle from its tip down to the rootlets.
These findings indicate that the well-known stability of rootlet filaments towards elevated Ca++ ion concentrations cannot be explained by the absence of villin. Therefore additional factors must exist which prevent the rootlets from Ca++-villin mediated disassembly.
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Drenckhahn, D., Hofmann, HD. & Mannherz, H.G. Evidence for the association of villin with core filaments and rootlets of intestinal epithelial microvilli. Cell Tissue Res. 228, 409–414 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00204889
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00204889