Comparison of gene expression signature between nascent Lhx6-GFP+ cells from mouse embryonic brain and differentiated Lhx6-GFP+ cells from ES cells (as well as comparing those of Lhx6-GFP+ and Lhx6-GFP- cells from ES cells)

There was a remarkable similarity in the molecular properties of the MGE-GFP+ and ES-GFP+ cells. In particular, genes that are important for medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) and cortical interneurons development are both high in expression in both MGE-Lhx6-GFP+ and ES-Lhx6-GFP+ cells (compared to ES-Lhx6-GFP- cells). To investigate how closely ES cells-derived Lhx6-GFP+ cells resembled authentic Lhx6+ MGE cells, and to define the molecular properties of the Lhx6-GFP+ and Lhx6-GFP- cells from differentiated ES cells, we compared their gene expression profiles. We used FACS to purify GFP+ cells from the E12.5 MGE of Lhx6-GFP transgenic mice. ES-Lhx6-GFP+ cells and ES-Lhx6-GFP- cells (both from D12 EB aggregates) were also isolated by fluorescent activated cell sorting (FACS) and all of the RNA samples were subjected to RNA expression microarray analyses.