Analysis of transcriptomes of thymic populations isolated from neonatal thymi

The transcriptional profiles of human acute leukemias frequently parallel those of normal hematopoietic precursors, and provide insight into mechanisms of oncogenesis in these leukemias. We extracted RNA from six phenotypically defined T-lymphoid progenitor groups that were isolated from a series of human thymi, and compared gene expression patterns with different subgroups of primary human acute leukemias. Total RNA was obtained from flow sorted populations of neonatal thymi and was used for Affymetrix microarray analysis.