Expression data from HD-1 bri and HD-1 dim cells

Pericytes derived from skin dermis can substantially enhance the short-term tissue-regenerative capacity of human epidermal cells already committed to differentiation; they also display both phenotypic and functional properties of mesenchymal stem cells. In this microarray analysis, we compared the gene expression profile of dermal pericytes to that of the remaining dermal cells of neonatal human foreskin. Human neonatal foreskin was digested overnight in dispase II at 4°C to separate the epidermis from the dermis. Subsequently the dermis was digested for 1-2 hours at 37°C in a mixed dispase and collagenase solution and then fractionated into two populations, i.e. pericytes (HD-1bri) and the remaining dermal cells (HD-1dim), on the basis of differential VLA-1 expression using fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Total RNA from 15,000 cells of each population was extracted from 4 independent replicate sorts. mRNAs were amplified using a T7-primer-based-2-round linear RNA amplification protocol (GeneChip Two-Cycle cDNA synthesis kit). Fragmented and biotin-labelled cRNA from each individual sample was hybridised to Affymetrix HG-U133 plus 2.0 arrays and scanned on a Affymetrix GeneChip scanner. Probe intensities were RMA normalized and log2-transformed expression values were compared using moderated t statistics to quantify differences between individual samples.