Gene expression profiling of cell subpopulations from different regions of the mouse brain

As a starting point for dissecting the cellular heterogeneity of astrocytes in the adult brain, we focused our initial studies on the olfactory bulb (OB) and combined an Aldh1l1-GFP reporter mouse with candidate cell surface markers to isolate astrocyte sub-populations using FACS analysis. To this end, we screened a panel of cell surface antigens for their ability to divide the Aldh1l1-GFP astrocyte population within the OB into distinct sub-populations. Candidate cell surface markers were selected based on previously published gene expression profiling data from our lab and others and antibody availability. Different subpopulations from different brain regions were profiled for gene expression. Gene expression profiles (by RNA-seq) were taken of mouse cell lines in 6 populations and 3 brain regions.