Fig. 4. Expression of neural crest and pluripotency core factors in hDPSCs grown in DMEM+10% FBS, STP and STP/NTF2 media: a-b) Q-PCR assessment of expression levels of neural crest genes SLUG, SNAIL, HNK1 and P75^NTR in hDPSCs grown in DMEM+10% FBS, STP and STP/NTF2. Significantly higher levels of expression were found for migratory NC markers HNK1 and P75^NTR in hDPSCs grown in BDNF/NT-3-supplemented STP (STP + NTF2) *p<0.05 and **p<0.01. c) Pluripotency factor genes SOX2, OCT4, and NANOG expression levels in DMEM+10% FBS, STP and STP + NTF2. Higher expression levels were found for the three core factors in BDNF/NT-3-supplemented STP (STP + NTF2) conditions. ***=p<0.001. d) Ki67 proliferation marker positive cell percentage of hDPSCs grown in all three culture media, showing a limitation of the growth rate in STP medium, with respect to DMEM+10% FBS and STP+NTF2. Statistics were analyzed by ANOVA following by Scheffe or Bonferroni post-hoc analysis. Experiments were performed in triplicate.