CEBPA-regulated lncRNAs, new players in the study of acute myeloid leukemia

CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-alpha (CEBPA) is a critical regulator of myeloid differentiation. Disruption of CEBPA function contributes to the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). CEBPA regulates a large number of protein coding genes of which several were shown to contribute to CEBPA function. In this study, we expand the analysis of CEBPA transcriptional targets to the newly identified class of long non-coding RNAs. We show that lncRNAs are a main component of the transcriptional program driven by C/EBP alpha and that many of these are also induced during granulocytic differentiation of AML cell lines supporting their relevance in proliferation arrest and differentiation.