RNA-seq of Human neural progenitor cells exposed to lead (Pb) reveals transcriptome dynamics, splicing alterations and Pb disease risk associations

We use time series RNA-seq to conduct a genome-wide survey of the temporal transcriptome response of human embryonic stem (ES) cell-derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs) exposed to lead. NPCs were derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) with a modified protocol from a previously reported protocol (Chambers et al. 2009) (Methods). We used lead acetate to treat NPCs at two different concentrations, 3 μM and 30 μM.