All IF proteins are expressed in a highly developmentally-regulated fashion; vimentin is the major cytoskeletal component of mesenchymal cells.

[8] Two monomers are likely co-translationally expressed in a way that facilitates their interaction forming a coiled-coil dimer, which is the basic subunit of vimentin assembly.

Scientists found that vimentin provided cells with a resilience absent from the microtubule or actin filament networks, when under mechanical stress in vivo.

[12] On the other hand, wounded mice that lack the vimentin gene heal slower than their wild type counterparts.

Vimentin has been shown to eliminate toxic proteins in JUNQ and IPOD inclusion bodies in asymmetric division of mammalian cell lines.

[15] Also, vimentin is found to control the transport of low-density lipoprotein, LDL, -derived cholesterol from a lysosome to the site of esterification.

[16] Vimentin plays a role in aggresome formation, where it forms a cage surrounding a core of aggregated protein.

Statistically significant levels of vimentin gene methylation have also been observed in certain upper gastrointestinal pathologies such as Barrett's esophagus, esophageal adenocarcinoma, and intestinal type gastric cancer.

[24] High levels of DNA methylation in the promoter region have also been associated with markedly decreased survival in hormone positive breast cancers.