Gene expression profiling of mesenchyme-derived cell populations in the human airways

Mesenchyme-derived cells in the human airway wall including airway smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts and myofibroblasts are known to play important roles in airway remodeling. The lack of specific phenotypic markers makes it difficult to define these cell populations in primary cultures. The objectives of this study were to evaluate reported markers and to identify novel markers to define these cell types. We could not identify a specific single marker to define any of these cell populations in vitro that permitted unequivocal identification. We therefore used global gene expression profiling to identify genes that were differentially expressed in human airway mesenchymal cells. 3 samples were analysed in total - low passage human airway smooth muscle (HASM) cells (HASM-LP), high passage HASM cells (HASM-HP), MRC5 (lung fibroblasts) were used in this study for RNA extraction. MRC5 cells were used as the control cell population and were co-hybridised with HASM-LP and HASM-HP on cDNA microarrays. Spot arrays or cDNA arrays were used as a confirmatory gene expression profiling data to affymetrix arrays.