title: Comparison of the Odontogenic Differentiation Potential of Dental Follicle, Dental Papilla, and Cranial Neural Crest Cells.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  During tooth development, cells originating from the neural crest serve as precursors to the cells in the dental follicle and dental papilla. Therefore, the current study aimed to understand the associations of cranial neural crest cells (CNCCs), dental follicle cells (DFCs), and dental papilla cells (DPCs) by performing a parallel comparison to evaluate their odontogenic differentiation capacities.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, we harvested the 3 cells from C57/green fluorescent protein-positive mice or embryos and compared the cell morphology, surface antigens, microstructures, and gene and protein expression. Under the odontogenic microenvironments provided by treated dentin matrix, the odontogenic differentiations of the 3 cells were further compared in vitro and in vivo.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The gene levels of DFCs in neurofilament, tubulin, and nestin were close to the DPCs, and in alkaline phosphatase, osteopontin, dentin matrix protein 1, and dentin sialophosphoprotein were the lowest in the 3 cells. However, Western blot results showed that DFCs possessed more similar protein profiles to CNCCs than DPCs, including collagen 1, transforming growth factor beta 1, osteopontin, neurofilament, and dentin matrix protein 1. Meanwhile, DFCs as 1 source of dental stem cells possessed high potency in odontogenic differentiation in vitro. Moreover, similar dentinlike tissues were observed in all 3 groups in vivo.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CNCCs, DFCs, and DPCs possessed different biological characteristics in odontogenic differentiation.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China; National Engineering Laboratory for Oral Regenerative Medicine, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China; Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China; National Engineering Laboratory for Oral Regenerative Medicine, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qince
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China; National Engineering Laboratory for Oral Regenerative Medicine, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China; National Engineering Laboratory for Oral Regenerative Medicine, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China; Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zongting
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China; National Engineering Laboratory for Oral Regenerative Medicine, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China; Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China; National Engineering Laboratory for Oral Regenerative Medicine, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China; National Engineering Laboratory for Oral Regenerative Medicine, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China; Department of Pedodontics, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: guoweihua943019@163.com.
authors.forename: Weihua
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China; National Engineering Laboratory for Oral Regenerative Medicine, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China; Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: drtwd@sina.com.
authors.forename: Weidong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tian
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003771:Dental Papilla / Q000166:cytology*; D003795:Dental Sac / Q000166:cytology*; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009432:Neural Crest / Q000166:cytology*; D009805:Odontogenesis
keywords: Cranial neural crest cells; dental follicle cells; dental pulp cells; tooth development; tooth regeneration