Morphological maintenance of HSCs and the role of VCAM-1 in HSC adhesion. (A) HSCs maintain polarized morphology on an SLB with mSCF+VCAM-1 at 1, 2, 6, and 12 h in the culture. (B) The percentages of HSCs with protrusions remain stable over 12 h. n.s., P > 0.05 by ANOVA and Tukey’s test. (C) VCAM-1 promotes HSC adhesion to lipid bilayers. Representative DIC, bright-field (BF), and IRM images of HSCs incubated with a blank lipid bilayer or a lipid bilayer tethered with VCAM-1. (D) Quantification of cell adhesion areas measured from IRM images. n = 39 (blank) and 52 (VCAM-1) single cells per condition. Error bars represent SD. **, P < 0.01 by unpaired Student’s t test (two tailed). Scale bars, 10 µm.