We investigated the effects of post-growth annealing on the photoluminescence (PL) characteristics of InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The onset temperature at which both the peak linewidth and the PL intensity degraded and the blueshift of the ground state emission wavelength occurred was found to depend on both the QD density and the In composition of the capping layer. This behavior is particularly important in view of QD integration in photonic devices. From the knowledge of the dependences of the PL characteristics after annealing on the QD and capping growth conditions, ground state lasing at 1.30 microm could be demonstrated from InAs/GaAs QDs grown by MOCVD. Finally, we compared the laser characteristics of InAs/GaAs QDs with those of InAs/Sb:GaAs QDs, grown according to the antimony-mediated growth technique, and showed that InAs/Sb:GaAs QDs are more appropriate for laser fabrication at 1.3 microm by MOCVD.