FIGURE 3.

Isolation and characterization of sphere‐forming APDCs, PDLDCs, and OMSDCs. (A) APDCs, PDLDCs, and OMSDCs formed spheres (5.0 × 10⁴ cells/well). (B) Sphere‐forming abilities (n = 6, patient‐matched). Spheres with diameter ≥ 100 μm were counted after seven days of sphere culture (2.0 × 10⁴ cells/well, n = 6, patient‐matched). (C) Measurement of sphere diameter (n = 3, patient‐matched). (D) Semi‐quantitative RT‐PCR analysis of NES, CD44, SNAI1, SNAI2, MSX1, and HES1 mRNAs. GAPDH, used as the internal control. (E) Immunohistochemical analysis of nestin and CD44. Results are expressed as mean ± SE. Abbreviations: DAPI, 4′,6‐diamidino‐2‐phenylindole