Expression data of skeletal stem cells from young mouse spines and femurs

The spine is a remarkably specialized skeletal structure, exhibiting distinct anatomical phenotypes across different spinal regions. With this understanding in mind, we hypothesized that skeletal stem cells (mSSCs) originating from various spinal regions (cervical, thoracic, and lumbar) might display varying genotypic signatures that may dictate their skeletal tissue formation and shape. We also analyzed femur SSCs as an additional control. Microarray gene expression profiling of mSSCs and mBCSPs from healthy newborn (post-natal day 3, P3), spinal regions (cervical, thoracic, and lumbar) and femur. Cervical, throracic and lumbar regions of postnatal day 3 (P3) mouse spines and femurs were dissected and subjected to mechanical and enzymatic (collagenase) digestion. The samples were then stainined with a panel of cell surface markers for FACS isolation of skeletal stem cells and their downstream progenitor, bone, cartilage, and stromal progenitors (BCSPs). Samples were then subjected to RNA extraction and hydridization on Affymetrix microarrays.