Hematopoietic Fingerprints: an expression database of stem cells and their progeny

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) continuously regenerate a complete hematologic and immune system. Very few genes that regulate this process have yet been identified. In order to identify factors governing differentiation, we have compared the transcriptome of highly purified HSC with their differentiated progeny, including erythrocytes, granulocytes, monocytes, NK cells, activated and nave T-cells, and B-cells. Chromosomal analysis revealed that HSC were more transcriptionally active than other cell types across most chromosomes. Each lineage expressed ~100 to 400 genes uniquely, including many previously uncharacterized genes. Overexpression of two fingerprint genes resulted in a significant bias in differentiation indicating a role in cell fate determination, demonstrating the utility of these data for modulation of specific cell types.

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Chambers SM, Boles NC, Lin KY, Tierney MP, Bowman TV, Bradfute SB, Chen AJ, Merchant AA, Sirin O, Weksberg DC, Merchant MG, Fisk CJ, Shaw CA, Goodell MA