Gene expression profiling of human erythroid progenitors by micro-serial analysis of gene expression.

We compared the expression profiles of highly purified human CD34+ cells and erythroid progenitor cells by micro-serial analysis of gene expression (microSAGE). Human CD34+ cells were purified from granulocyte colony-stimulating factor-mobilized blood stem cells, and erythroid progenitors were obtained by cultivating these cells in the presence of stem cell factor, interleukin 3, and erythropoietin. Our 10,202 SAGE tags allowed us to identify 1354 different transcripts appearing more than once. Erythroid progenitor cells showed increased expression of LRBA, EEF1A1, HSPCA, PILRB, RANBP1, NACA, and SMURF. Overexpression of HSPCA was confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. MicroSAGE revealed an unexpected preferential expression of several genes in erythroid progenitor cells in addition to the known functional genes, including hemoglobins. Our results provide reference data for future studies of gene expression in various hematopoietic disorders, including myelodysplastic syndrome and leukemia.