The Transcriptional Network that Controls Growth Arrest and Macrophage Differentiation in the Human Myeloid Leukemia Cell Line THP-1

The response of the human acute myeloid leukemia cell line THP-1 to phorbol esters has been widely-studied to test candidate leukemia therapies and as a model of cell cycle arrest and monocyte-macrophage differentiation. This study employs Cap Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE) to analyse a dense time course of transcriptional regulation in THP-1 cells treated with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) over 96 hours. Time points chosen for CAGE sequencing were hourly from 0 to 12 h, two hourly from 12 to 18, 24, 36, 48, and 96 h. At least three replicates of each time point were included. Eight samples of 5 µg RNA each were made into one CAGE library following the protocol adapted from Takahashi et al. (2012).