Identification of novel mast cell genes by serial analysis of gene expression in cord blood‐derived mast cells

The gene expression profile of human cord blood-derived mast cells (MCs) was investigated using serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE). A total of 22914 tags, representing 9181 unique transcripts, were sequenced. By selecting tags that were detected more frequently in MCs than in other tissues, genes characteristic of MCs were enriched. Reverse transcription-PCR and the high-density oligonucleotide array hybridization confirmed the validity of our SAGE result. About 70% of the selected genes were previously uncharacterized. Northern blot analysis showed the MC-specific expression of selected genes. This inventory will be useful to identify novel genes with important functions in MCs.