Diminished LPS responses in spleen CD11c cells isolated from EPCR-deficient mice. Total RNA was prepared from FACS-enriched spleen CD11c cells of unchallenged or LPS-treated wild-type mice and from EPCR^LOW mice and analyzed by array hybridization of pooled RNA samples or by RT-PCR analysis of selected genes in samples from individual animals. (A) Heat map depicts the hybridization intensity of labeled complementary RNA prepared from pooled RNA samples to 44 105 gene probes of the Affymetrix mouse 430 2.0 genome array. Genes are arranged according to their expression level in LPS-treated wild-type mice (middle panel). EPCR deficiency was associated with a global suppression of the LPS response. (B) RT-PCR quantitation of Irf8, Peli1, Ccl22, and Malt1 mRNA relative to 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) in spleen CD11c cells of individual mice and in the pooled sample employed for array hybridization. Data represent the average ± standard deviation of 3 measurements in each sample, with the level in wild-type mice arbitrarily set to “1.”