Transcription profiling of CaCo-2 cells differentiated to M cells - establishing and characterizing a cell culture model for M cells

M cells are special cells in the epithelium of the small intestinal bowel and play an important role during the initiation of a primary, fast immune response. On a Costar-Transwell filter cells of a colon adeno carcinoma cell line (Caco-2) are growing until differentiation. Then on the other side of the Caco cell layer lymphocytes from human venous blood are added. Pores in the filter membrane allow contact between lymphocytes and Caco cells. Therefore some cells of the Caco cell layer are differentiating to "M cell like" cells, showing the morpholgy and function of natural M cells. Experiment Overall Design: Two replicates of non-induced filter-grown Caco cells and three replicates of lymphocyte-induced filter-grown Caco cells (including lymphocyte expression) for the identification of regulated genes; one experiment of bottle-grown Caco cells and one experiment of bottle-grown lymphocytes for baseline expression profiling and control reasons.