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Figure 2. Characterization of dental pulp cells. (A) Immunofluorescence flow-cytometric analysis of the dental pulp cells at day 1 culture on the polystyrene without dexamethasone and day 14 culture with or without dexamethasone. Immunoreaction was performed with CD44-specific monoclonal antibody conjugated with FITC (y axis). The vertical line was set to the reactivity level of < 1% mean fluorescence, obtained from the cell suspension without CD44 antibody. (B) Alkaline phosphatase activity of the DPCs. The left panels show representative images of ALP staining of the cells cultured on the polystyrene. The percentage of the ALP-positive area relative to the culture area was measured by means of a digital image analyzer. Data are shown as the mean ± SD (n = 3). (C) The left panels show representative images of Von Kossa staining of the cells cultured on the polystyrene. The percentage of the Von Kossa-positive area relative to the culture area was measured by means of a digital image analyzer. Data are shown as the mean ± SD (n = 3).
