The influence of the donor on dental apical papilla stem cell properties.

Stem cells from the human dental apical papilla (SCAP) can be obtained from almost all extracted wisdom teeth with an immature tooth root. Although different stem cell lines are used for studies, it remains elusive whether specific characteristics of the dental stem cell cultures such as proliferation rates or the cell differentiation potential are related to the cell source, e.g. the donor tissue of the dental apical papilla. To answer this question, we compared two independent SCAP cell lines from the same donor and compared them with a third cell line from another donor. We investigated the expression of stem cell markers, the efficiency of colony forming units, cell proliferation and the differentiation potential. Results showed particular differences for typical stem cell attributes such as stem cell marker expression, cell proliferation and the adipogenic differentiation. These differences were regardless of the donor of the cell lines. In conclusion, we suppose that stem cell characteristics of SCAP cell cultures are independent from the donor.