Figure 8: Schematic illustration showing the putative signaling pathways involved in SDF-1 mediated migration of hDPSCs.

Extracellular SDF-1 induces the engagement of CXCR4, leading to the activation and coordination of FAK and PI3K. Consequently, the phosphorylation of Akt at ser473 inhibits the activation of GSK3β resulting in an increase of β-catenin expression. As a result, the SDF-1/CXCR4 axis activates FAK/PI3K/Akt and GSK3β/β-catenin pathways leading to the migration of hDPSCs.