Gene Expression data from mouse bone marrow derived macrophages treated with different inflammatory stimuli

The activation profiles of macrophages under different immune and inflammatory conditions have generated great interest. LPS, in particular, is a commonly used in vitro model of infection and inflammation studies in macrophages. We have used gene expression microarrays to define the effects of each of three variables; LPS dose, LPS vs. interferons beta and gamma, and genetic background on the transcriptional response of mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages Macrophages derived from the C57BL/6 strain of mouse were challenged with increasing doses of LPS over a 24 hour time-course (0.5ng/ml, 5ng/ml, or 50ng/ml LPS). BALB/c derived macrophages were treated with any of 5ng/ml LPS, 10U/ml of recombinant mouse interferon-beta, or 10U/ml interferon-gamma, over a 24 hour timecourse. Sampling times were 0 hours (pre-treatment) and 1, 2, 4, 8, and 24 hours post-treatment in each case. 64 samples in total were analysed. These incorporated 6 different timecourse studies. A combination of statistical filtering using the Empirical Bayes function in Bioconductor package (R statistical software), and co-expression analysis using the network analysis tool BioLayout Express 3D, was used to compare the timecourse studies.