Fig. 1

Characterization of stem cells from four types of dental tissue. Scale bar = 100 µm. a Cell morphology was observed at passage three by phase contrast microscope. The fibroblast-like dish-adherent growth cell morphologies were observed in all dental stem cells. b All dental stem cells were successfully differentiated into mesenchymal lineages, including adipocytes, and chondrocytes, which were detected by lineage-specific cytochemical staining: Oil red O for adipocytes, and alcian blue for chondrocytes. c The gene expression of lineage specific markers in differentiated adipocytes and chondrocytes in RT-qPCR. Data are represented by the mean ± SD of four independent experiments. Lettered subscripts indicate statistical differences between groups (p < 0.05)