Although vimentin-null mice were first reported to display no obvious phenotype, these data along with previous reports suggest that loss of vimentin is protective against a range of disease states including lung cancer, acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, bacterial meningitis, cerebral ischemia, and acute colitis [26, 64–68]. This evidence concerns the gene VIM and acute respiratory distress syndrome.