Gene expression profile of Nurse-Like Cells (NLC) derived from chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Homo sapiens

The study of the roles of macrophages in the microenvironment of cancer cells (tumor-associated macrophages, TAM) has gained deep insight over the recent years. Here, we describe gene expression profile of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)-associated macrophages, also called nurse-like cells (NLC), derived from in vitro co-cultures system. We define these NLC as M2-oriented, TAM-like specific subset of macrophages, with very few inter-individual variations in gene expression profiles. Overall design: CLL patients PBMC were isolated and cultured for 15 days in vitro. NLC were then isolated, mRNA were purified and hybridized on Affymetrix U133 plus 2.0 chips. Data were normalized by RMA5