March 26, 2020

Närvä et al published a paper in Stem Cell Reports in 2017 showing the importance of focal adhesions in iPSC colonies.

• Human pluripotent colonies have exceptional actin structure and focal adhesions
• Contraction-dependent tight colony compaction enforces pluripotency
• Colony morphology is maintained by edge-oriented cell divisions
• Differentiation alters actin orientation, integrin activity, and adhesion strength

Importantly, they showed the prolonged use of ROCKi can affect focal adhesions, thus decreasing the capacity for pluripotency, especially around the edges of colonies.