Expression data from Thymocytes of WT, TCF-1-deficient and β-catenin transgenic mice. Mus musculus

Both TCF-1 and its coactivator β-catenin are known to be required for supporting normal double positive (DP) thymocyte survival through upregulating Bcl-xL. However, the downstream factors mediating this effect remained unknown. We used microarray to compare the global expression difference among WT, TCF-1-deficient, and β-catenin transgenic thymocytes to search for the genes that are down-regulated and up-regulated in TCF-1-deficient and β-catenin transgenic thymocytes, respectively. Overall design: We focus on the genes that are significantly down-regulated and up-regulated in TCF-1-deficient and β-catenin transgenic thymocytes, respectively, to select for those genes that are potential target genes of β-catenin/TCF-1 pathway. And then those genes are subject to IPA pathway analysis searching for genes that are involved in thymocyte development and cell death.