Expression data of mesenchymal cells from mouse liver

There are a few markers available to distinguish hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), portal fibroblasts (PFs), and mesothelial cells (MCs) in the adult mouse liver. To identify genes uniquely expressed in these cells, we isolated HSCs having Vitamin A lipids by FACS based on their autofluorescence. We isolated a mixed population containing PFs and MCs as Vitamin A lipid-negative and GFP-positive cells by FACS from Collagen1a1 promoter-driven GFP transgenic mice. MCs were isolated by FACS using anti-GPM6A antibodies from adult mouse livers. PFs were isolated by FACS as Vitamin A lipid-negative, GFP-positive, and GPM6A-negative cells. We also isolated HSCs, MCs, and PFs from Collagen1a1 promoter-driven GFP transgenic mouse livers having biliary fibrosis by FACS. Biliary fibrosis was induced by bile duct ligation for 3 weeks. Sham operation was performed as a control. After separation of these cells, we isolated total RNAs and analyzed mRNA expression by microarray analysis. Total RNA was extracted with RNAqueous Micro (Ambion) and the probes for the microarray were synthesized using the Ovation RNA amplification system V2 and FL-Ovation cDNA Biotin module V2 (Nugen). The labeled probes were hybridized with GeneChip Mouse Genome 430 2.0 arrays (Affymetrix) and signals were analyzed with Genomic Suite software (Partek).