Impact of LINE-1 overexpression on gene expression in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived microglia

The aberrant expression of the transposable element LINE-1 is posited to impact cellular function and contribute to disease. We report that LINE-1 overexpression in these microglial cells drives significant functional and transcriptomic changes, including altered expression of genes associated with antigen presentation. To investigate the impact of increased LINE-1 expression on human microglia, we utilized the CRISPR activation system to establish human iPSC-derived microglial cell lines over expression LINE-1, as well as a corresponding non-targeting control. We generated three independent cell lines for each condition, and performed bulk RNA-seq on the differentiated microglia to examine how LINE-1 over expression impacted the microglial transcriptome.