Expression data of thymospheres

Evidence suggests that a stem cell-driven differentiation hierarchy maintains the dynamic thymic epithelial cell (TEC) network that governs T lymphocyte development. The identification of TEC stem/progenitor cells has been a major focus in the field and several candidates with contrasting phenotypes have been described. a Foxn1neg EpCAMneg cell population was shown to generate so-called thymospheres. We used Affymetrix mouse 1ST arrays to analyze their gene expression profile. CD45- MACS depleted thymic stromal cells were cultured at previously described (Ucar et al. Immunity 2014). These were then analyzed by gene expression profiling. Specifically, total RNA was extracted using Trizol. Purified total RNA was then amplified using the MessageAmp RNA kit (Ambion). Biotinylated cRNA was then hybridized to Affymetrix Mouse Gene 1-ST arrays by the genomics core at the Weizmann Institute