Transcriptomes of intestinal blood endothelial cells (BEC) from mice with acute epithelial Apc deletion.

APC is mutated in the majority of colorectal cancers. Inducible deletion of Apc in intestinal epithelial cells in Apcfl//fl; Villin-CreERT2 mice recapitulates this tumor-initiating mutation resulting in expanded intestinal crypts, including stem cells. We used microarrays to analyze BEC gene expression changes during the early stages of intestinal tumorigenesis. Adult wild-type control (Apcfl//fl) or Apcfl//fl; Villin-CreERT2 (KO) mice were daily injected subcutaneously with tamoxifen for 5 days. At day 6 the intestine was harvested and digested with Collagenase IV and BECs were sorted as single, live, CD45neg, EpCAMneg, gp38neg, CD31+ cells. RNA was amplified and hybridized on Affymetrix Mouse Gene 2.0 ST arrays.