Expression Profiling: during in vitro neural differentiation from mES cells.

GeneChip-based screen for genes induced in the initial phase of neural differentiation from ES cells. We established an efficient system for the in vitro neural differentiation of mouse ES cells involving floating aggregate culture in growth-factor-minimized medium (serum-free culture of embryoid body-like aggregates; SFEB, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15696161). We use this culture system, Sox1-GFP ES cells (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12923295) were differentiated with SFEB culture method for 1-5 days. Then, differentiated cells were sorted with Sox1 (neuroectodermal marker) or E-cadherin (undifferentiation marker) by FACS. And analyzed these cell populations by using Affymetrix Murine Genome U74 Version 2 Arrays (U74Av2, U74Bv2 and U74Cv2).