React.js: Set innerHTML vs dangerouslySetInnerHTML

Is there any “behind the scenes” difference from setting an element’s innerHTML vs setting the dangerouslySetInnerHTML property on an element? Assume I’m properly sanitizing things for the sake of simplicity.

Example:

var test = React.createClass({
  render: function(){
    return (
      <div contentEditable="true" dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: "Hello" }}></div>
    );
  }
});

vs

var test = React.createClass({
  componentDidUpdate: function(prevProp, prevState){
    this.refs.test.innerHTML = "Hello";
  },
  render: function(){
    return (
      <div contentEditable="true" ref="test"></div>
    );
  }
});

I’m doing something a bit more complicated than the above example, but the overall idea is the same