The differentially expressed genes profile upon ZFX silencing in CML CD34+ cells

In our previous study, the roles of zinc finger protein X-linked (ZFX) in CML cells were revealed. We showed that ZFX expression was significantly higher in CML CD34+ cells than in control cells. Overexpression and gene silencing experiments indicated that ZFX promoted the in vitro growth of CML cells, conferred imatinib mesylate (IM) resistance to these cells, and enhanced BCR/ABL-induced malignant transformation. To obtain molecular insights of how ZFX modulates the growth and imatinib response of CML stem and progenitor cells, we generated microarray data comparing ZFX silenced CML CD34+ cells with control (Scramble) cells. We recruited 3 CML patient bone marrow samples for CD34+ stem/progenitor cells enrichment with immunomagnetic beads. The CD34+ cells were transduced with concentrated lentivirus and then isolated using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). The transduced CD34+ cells were harvested for microarray analysis using Agilent whole human genome oligo-chips (4×180K) in Shanghai Biotechnology Corporation. The differentially expressed transcripts were determined based on Student’s t-test (P<0.05) and fold change (>2).