Expression data from human HSPCs

Aging within the human hematopoietic system associates with increased incidence of anemia and myeloid neoplasms, decreased bone marrow (BM) cellularity and reduced adaptive immune responses. Similar phenotypes have been observed in mice and shown, at least in part, to involve hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). However, evidence supporting such an association within human hematopoiesis is still sparse and prompted us to detail characteristics of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells throughout ontogeny. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying the alterations of aged HSCs. Young human HSPC populations as well as aged HSCs were selected for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. The different populations were isolated using FACS-purification.