Fig. 1.

Growth characteristics of DPSCs and aBMMSCs after long-term expansion with three different culture media: one serum-based (CCM) and two serum/xeno-free, cGMP media (StemMacs and StemPro). a Population doubling (PD) time (days) (mean ± SD) for DPSCs (n = 6 donors, experiments repeated three times in duplicates) and aBMMSCs (n = 4 donors, experiments repeated three times in duplicates) through passages. Comparisons between cells, passages and media performed by two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post-hoc tests. Asterisks indicate statistically significant increase in PDT at consecutive passages of each culture medium/cell type (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01). b Total cumulative PD numbers (mean ± SD) for DPSCs (n = 6) and aBMMSCs (n = 4) calculated based on the ratio of cells seeded vs cells harvested per passage. Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; n.s. = nonsignificant, calculated by two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post-hoc tests) either among the three different media (depicted below/above red or blue double arrows for DPSCs and aBMMSCs, respectively) or between the two different cell types (over horizontal black double arrows). aBMMSC alveolar bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell, CCM complete culture medium, DPSC dental pulp stem cell, P cell passage