Differential gene expression of Kit+Sca1+Lin- (KSL) cells from arthritic versus control mice

The involvement of mature hematopoietic cells in disease pathogenesis is well recognized. However it is not clear how if and how primitive progenitors might contribute to inflammatory disease processes. This microarray experiment is used together with data from functional assays to determine how primitive progenitors are altered in a mouse model of autoimmune arthritis and how this in turn might contribute to the disease process. KSL cells were FACS sorted from 7 to 9 6-7 week old arthritic (KRNxG7) mice as well as from two strains of non-arthritic age-matched control mice: KRN and B6xG7 mice. Cells were sorted using identical conditions and identical sorting gates. To verify the primitive status of the KSL cells, Lin+ cells were also MACS sorted from these same mice. All the mice used in this study were C57BL/6 background strain. G7 mice are congenic with C57BL/6 but with MHC II I-Ab replaced with MHC II I-Ag7.