Gene expression profiling of mouse prostate stem cells

The mouse prostate tissue exhibits strong power of regeneration, indicating the exisistence of prostate stem cells. Previously we showed that a single mouse prostate cells defined by Lin-CD44+CD133+Sca-1+CD117+ phenotype can generate a prostate after transplantation in vivo. In this study, we compared gene expression profiles of mouse prostate stem cells ( Lin-CD44+CD133+Sca-1+CD117+) and prostate non-stem cells (Lin-CD44-CD133-Sca-1-CD117-). Primary mouse prostate cells were isolated from BL6 mice. Lin-CD44+CD133+Sca-1+CD117+ and Lin-CD44-CD133-Sca-1-CD117- cells were sorted via FACS, and microarray was performed to compare gene expressions between the two groups of cells.