Gene expression analysis of hematopoietic stem progenitor cells from AGO2 knock out mice.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are capable of both self-renewing throughout the lifetime of an organism and differentiating into all lineages of the blood system. A proper balance between quiescence and proliferation is critical for the self-renewal and functions of HSCs. To identify the functions of the slicer endonuclease Argonaute (Ago) 2 in the physiology of HSCs, we generated Ago2Hem-KO mice, that are deficient for Ago2 in HSCs and in their progeny. Our analysis indicated that Ago2 deficient HSCs show increased quiescence and reduced entry to proliferation. To understand molecular mechanisms that are deregulated in Ago2 deficient hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), we isolated Lin-Sca1+c-Kit+ (LSK) cells from control and Ago2 deficient mice and performed microarray analysis using the Illumina's MouseWG-6 v2.0 Expression BeadChip platform. Total RNA was obtained from lineage- Sca1+ c-Kit+ (LSK) cells of control and Ago2 deficient mice.