Probing the Signaling Requirements for Naive Human Pluripotency by High-Throughput Chemical Screening

The authors reported that MEK1/2 inhibitors could be replaced during maintenance of naive human pluripotency by inhibitors targeting either upstream or downstream kinases. Naive human ESCs maintained under these alternative conditions displayed elevated levels of ERK phosphorylation but retained genome-wide DNA hypomethylation and a transcriptional identity of the pre-implantation epiblast.