Australasian Microarray & Associated Technologies Association, AMATA

de Graaf, CA, Robinson, A, Baldwin, T, Smyth, G and Hilton, D
Molecular Medicine, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria 3050, Australia

Eosinophils are a type of blood cell that are activated during inflammation and combat infection and parasites. They are also involved in the pathology of allergy and asthma.

However, little is known about the steps involved in the commitment of haematopoietic stem cells to eosinophil progenitors and the subsequent maturation process.

We have sorted cells with various levels of eosinophil commitment and used expression information to confirm the likely developmental order of these cells. This identifies a suite of genes that are gradually changing expression during development. We have used this to identify transcription factors which may be involved in driving eosinophil commitment and development.