Comparison of phenotype and differentiation ability between EMSCs and DPSCs

Objectives: The purpose was to study the relationship and distinction of cell phenotype and biological behavior between ecto-mesenchymal stem cells (EMSCs)and dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) to consider whether they have the potential abilities of engineering a tooth substitute as seed cells. Methods: The biological behaviors of DPSCs and EMSCs including growth proliferation characteristics, cell phenotype, differentiation abilities in vivo and in vitro and injury repair abilities were studied and analyzed with BMSCs as the standard. Results: The morphological characteristics of DPSCs and EMSCs were similar to those of BMSCs. The proliferation ability of EMSCs was higher than that of DPSCs by determining the clone formation ability, cell proliferation and cell period, which showed that EMSCs as the mesenchymal stem cells in the maxillofacial region had higher proliferation ability. The expression spectrum of DPSCs and EMSCs was similar. Both of them expressed the neuro-marker such as Nestin, NSE, NF and HNK-1. The dentine special protein molecular-DSPP was not expressed on the DPSCs and EMSCs, but little expressed on the BMSCs of rats. The multi-differentiation ability of DPSC may be lower than that of EMSCs. 3-dimension culture model of rat DPSCs and EMSCs in vitro could form reparative dentin and had the ability of involving into dental pulp injury plerosis. Conclusions: In summary, both DPSCs and EMSCs are the kinds of cephalic neural crest cells. Cell phenotype and differentiation ability of DPSCs and EMSCs are continuous during tooth development. EMSCs may belong to a kind of primitive stem cell subgroup, whose differentiation ability is higher than that of DPSCs. Both DPSCs and EMSCs have the abilities of differentiation in vivo and in vitro and dental pulp tissue plerosis. They can be considered as seed cells during study of tissue repair and reconstruction.