Expression data from bone marrow stromal cells (CD45.1-Ter119-)

Recent studies suggest that bone marrow stromal cells are critical for forming a niche that maintains hematopoietic stem cells’ quiescence and adapt blood production to the organism’s needs. Alterations in the bone marrow niche are commonly observed in blood malignancies and directly contribute to the aberrant function of disease-initiating leukemic stem cells. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of stromal cells' gene expression during leukemic progression. Stromal cells were sorted form wild type mice or the leukemic recipients for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. We sought to obtain gradually changes of stromal cells’ gene expression during leukemic progression. To that end, we divide the leukemic progression in BM into four discrete phases: 1) the long latent phase when leukemic cells were nearly undetectable by routine flow cytometric assay; 2) the short early phase (E) in which leukemic proportion was between 1%-5%; 3) the medium phase (M) in which leukemic proportion was between 5-50%; and 4) the late phase (L) in which leukemic proportion was over 50%. Of note, the leukemic surpass soared up exponentially post-E phase