Transcriptomic profiling of human BLaER1 pre-B cells transdifferentiation into macrophages

BLaER1 is a human B cell precursor leukemia cell line derived from the RCH-ACV cells. These cells are stably infected with a construct that overexpresses the transcription factor C/EBPa fused with the estrogen receptor hormone binding domain (ER) and GFP. Upon induction with beta-estradiol, C/EBP is internalized into the nucleus, promoting massive transcriptional changes and inducing the transdifferentiation of these pre-B cells into functional macrophages. This process, that lasts 7 days, can be monitored by the detection of specific B cell and macrophage surface markers by flow cytometry. With the goal of understanding the interplay between chromatin and transcription, we have generated transcriptomic data by RNA-Seq in twelve time points along the transdifferentiation process, in two biological replicates.