Fig. 9. siRNA knock down of vimentin and its effect on the aggregation and compaction of LNER cells treated or not with 4OHT. (A) Immunoblot analysis of vimentin expression in LNER cells treated or not with 4OHT and transfected with control or vimentin siRNAs. GAPDH served as a sample loading control. (B) Quantification of the vimentin signal (means of two experiments), showing a similar knockdown of vimentin (50%) by vimentin siRNA, compared to control siRNA, in LNER cells treated or not with 4OHT. (C) Aggregation/compaction assay of LNER cells with or without 4OHT treatment and transfected with control or vimentin siRNAs. Control siRNA had no effect on the aggregation of LNER cells lacking 4OHT treatment, or on the aggregation or compaction (arrows) of LNER cells treated with 4OHT. Nor did vimentin siRNAs affect the aggregation of LNER cells lacking 4OHT treatment. In contrast, vimentin siRNAs inhibited the compaction of aggregates of 4OHT-induced LNER cells.