p63 and its isoforms as markers of rat oral mucosa epidermal stem cells in vitro.

Although techniques for purifying epidermal stem cells (ESCs) have been established, enriching a pure population of viable ESCs is still a challenging task. One approach toward enhancing the purity and viability of ESCs involves cell markers. While evidence suggests that p63 plays a role in maintaining the population of ESCs, whether p63 can function as a specific marker for ESCs is unclear. We isolated and cultured oral ESCs and illustrated the expression of p63 and its isoforms in rat oral mucosa tissues and stem cells before and after differentiation. Semi-reverse transcription PCR detected the TA, DeltaN, alpha and beta isoforms when cells were cultured for 2 days, but only TA and gamma were detected after 14 days. We also found that p63 is expressed in basal and suprabasal epithelial layers of rat oral mucosa, but it was implied p63 does not mark stem cells specifically, while the DeltaNp63alpha and DeltaNp63beta isoforms may be specific markers of rat oral mucosa stem cells.