Vitamin C Promotes Positive Selection of Mouse T Cells

We discovered that vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is required for differentiation of mouse bone marrow-derived progenitor cells in T cell cultures based on OP9-DL1 stromal cells. This microarray dataset evaluates differential expression of genes in OP9-DL1 stromal cells as well as in lymphocytes developing in the cultures when a stabilized form of ascorbic acid (l-ascorbic acid 2-phosphate; pAsc) is added. Cultures were maintained in the absence of pAsc for 13 days, at which time 800 micromolar pAsc was added. Cells were harvested after 24 and 72 hours (24 hours only in the case of OP9-DL1 cells) and solubilized in Trizol. Two-condition experiment, differentiating T lymphoid cells with or without pAsc, 2 timepoints, OP9-DL1 cells with or without pAsc, 1 timepoint, no technical replicates