Comparison of differentially expressed genes in MDS stem cells and progenitors. (A) Number of genes versus minimal Fisher scores for 5q− versus normal CD34⁺CD38⁺Thy-1⁻ progenitors (dashed line) and 5q− versus normal CD34⁺CD38⁻Thy-1⁺ HSCs (solid line), respectively. (B) Number of differentially expressed genes with Fisher score above 2 when comparing 5q− and normal CD34⁺CD38⁻Thy-1⁺ stem cells and when comparing 5q− and normal CD34⁺CD38⁺Thy-1⁻ progenitors. Error bars indicate 95% confidence interval (Poisson statistics). (C) Microarray-based gene expression of 10 selected genes in 5q− CD34⁺CD38⁻Thy-1⁺ stem cells and 5q− CD34⁺CD38⁺Thy-1⁻ progenitors relative to the mean expression in their normal counterparts (from 5 healthy subjects and 4 5q− patients). Error bars show SEM. (D) Q-PCR analysis of CEBPA expression in 5q− CD34⁺CD38⁻Thy-1⁺ stem cells and 5q− CD34⁺CD38⁺Thy-1⁻ progenitors. Shown are the mean (SEM) differential expression for 5 healthy subjects and 9 5q− patients and individual expression levels for the investigated 5q− patients (nos. 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11) normalized against HPRT expression levels. Gray staples for HSCs and white staples for progenitors throughout the figure.