Title page, table of contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library. / Human adult dental pulp cells (DPSC) reside within the perivascular niche of dental pulp and are thought to originate from migrating cranial neural crest (CNC) cells. During development, CNC cells respond to the environmental cues to migrate and differentiate into the different cell types that contribute to the formation of craniofacial structures and the peripheral nervous system. The Eph family of receptor tyrosine kinases and their ligands, the ephrin molecules, play an essential role in the migration of neural crest cells during development and postnatal stem cell (SC) niche maintenance. "The present study demonstrated multiple Eph receptors expressed primarily on DPSC within the perivascular niche, while the surrounding pulp tissue expressed ephrin-B ligands. EphB/ephrin-B bi-directional signalling inhibited DPSC attachment and spreading, while DPSC migration was restricted through uni-directional ephrin-B1 activated EphB forward signalling in vitro. Furthermore, we observed that ephrin-B was down-regulated in diseased adult teeth compared to paired uninjured controls. Collectively, these studies suggest that EphB/ephrin-B molecules play a role in restricting DPSC attachment and migration in order to maintain DPSC within their SC niche under steady-state conditions. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1274738 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, 2007