BioProject

Thymosphere-forming cells undergo phenotypic changes during ontogeny that are likely to reflect changes in gene expression patterns within thymospheres. More...

Thymosphere-forming cells undergo phenotypic changes during ontogeny that are likely to reflect changes in gene expression patterns within thymospheres. We therefore isolated total RNA from pooled thymospheres derived from E14.5 or adult thymic digests and analysed their transcriptome by whole-genome microarrays. Several thymic epithelial markers including those associated with progenitor cells were differentially expressed in embryonic vs adult thymospheres. Gene ontology analysis revealed that pathways related to major key biological processes displayed changes between these two stages of ontogeny. We found significant differences in pathways involved in cell proliferation, development and differentiation, cell metabolism, regulation of transcription and regulation of DNA repair. Most interestingly, we observed significant enrichment of gene expression in several signalling pathways. Overall design: Thymic digests were plated into ultra low attachment culture and thymospheres were allowed to grow for seven days. Grown thymospheres were collected on filters to wash off remaining single cells and immediately lysed in Trizol. Two independent biological and technical replicates were performed. Less...