Gene expression analysis of transcriptome changes regulated by RANKL-RANK signaling in macrophage cell line RAW 264.7. Mus musculus

Bone remodeling relies on the precise developmental control of osteoclasts that resorb bone and osteoblasts that lay down fresh bone matrix. The hematopoietically derived osteoclast follow a tigthly controlled genetic program where specific genes are up-regulated to aid bone resorption.Some of them for instance control membrane polarization, others transporters and pumps to move the acid and proteases intot he resorption pit. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying differentiation of osteoclasts and identified distinct classes of up-regulated genes during this process. Overall design: RAW cells were selected at different time periods of culture during the osteoclast differentiation process for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. We sought to obtain more homogenous temporal resolution of expression profiles by using a cell line RAW 264.7 and including data of control cells that had been cultured for similar time periods without RANKL.