Gene expression profiling of cell subpopulations from a mouse model of glioma

As a starting point for dissecting the cellular heterogeneity of gliomas, different subpopulations from a CRISPR mouse model of glioma were profiled for gene expression. Because we initially identified these astrocyte subpopulations in the mouse brain, we first sought to determine whether their malignant analogues are present in mouse models of glioma. Towards this, we recently developed a mouse model of malignant glioma, one that utilizes E16.5 IUE approaches in combination with CRISPR mediated gene editing, where we use IUE to introduce gRNA vectors to delete NFI, PTEN, and p53, CAS9, and a GFP reporter, resulting in the generation of malignant glioma at P70. Using the GFP label to distinguish tumor from normal brain tissue, along with FACS-based selection against the glioma stem cell (GSC) and endothelial cells (see methods), we screened our tumor models for the presence of these prospective astroglial populations in the non-GSC fractions of these tumors. Overall design: Gene expression profiles (by RNA-seq) were taken of mouse glioma cells of three different populations.