Figure 6
Focal adhesions are dramatically upregulated in different tissue-level compartments within the uterus during pregnancy in response to continuous application of local force outside the cell balanced by cytoskeletal contraction. The different organization and size of these macromolecular assemblies containing cytoskeletal binding proteins, adapter proteins and signaling molecules illustrate how mechanical forces regulate the form and function of the uterine wall and also reveal markedly different elastic microenvironments.