The human reticulocyte transcriptome. Homo sapiens

RNA from circulating blood reticulocytes was utilized to provide a robust description of genes transcribed at the final stages of erythroblast maturation. After depletion of leukocytes and platelets, Affymetrix HG-U133 arrays were hybridized with probe from total RNA isolated from blood sampled from 14 umbilical cords and 14 healthy adult humans. Keywords: Adult vs. fetal reticulocyte transcriptome comparison Overall design: Peripheral blood from 14 normal adult and 14 human umbilical cord were purified to obtain packed red blood cells and their purity was assessed by CELL-DYN4000. The contaminated WBC count was less than 1 out of 1 million cells. Total RNA from purified reticulocytes included in the purified red blood cells was extracted, labeled, and hybridized onto Affymetrix HG-U133 A and B arrays.