Gene expression profiles of E8.75, E9.5, E10.5 and E11.5 ureteric bud precursors

Understanding the early developmental processes of the kidney ureteric bud lienage is important for the regeneration of kidney in vitro. The combination of fluorescent activated cell sorting (FACS) plus microarray analysis offers a powerful, efficient and effective method for the creation of global gene expression profiles of the developing kidney precursors. Those gene expression data provides insights into not only the stage specific marker genes but also the signals working in each population, which should be informative for the directed differentiation of pluripotent stem cells in vitro. Hoxb7-GFP transgenic mice were used to isolate kidney ureteric bud (UB) precursor cells from embryos at E8.75, E9.5, E10.5 and E11.5. For isolation of the pure UB precursor population, dissociated embryos were sorted by the flow cytometry gating Hoxb7-GFP-positive Flk1-negative population. To identify the differences between UB progenitors and neighboring nephron progenitor lineage precursors, the UB precursors were compared with E9.5 Wt1-GFP positive intermediate mesoderm cells, which give rise to the mesonephric and metanephric nephron progenitors.