Phenotype changes of oral epithelial stem cells after in vitro culture.

The aim of our study was to isolate populations of keratinocyte stem cells based on the expression of cell surface markers and to investigate whether the culture could affect their phenotype. keratinocytes from human oral mucosa were sorted based on the expression of the epithelial stem cell markers p75NTR and CD71. We also examined the co-expression of other epithelial stem markers such as integrins β1 and α6 and their stem cell-like proprieties in in vitro assays.