In regular blood donors, useful genetic changes are observed

In a study published in the Blood magazine, a group of scientists from the Institute of Scream, together with the researchers of the Center for Blood Donesty of the German Red Cross, analyzed blood samples of more than 200 permanent donors. These are people who donated blood three times a year for 40 years, a total of more than 120 times. The study also included sporadic control donors that donated blood less than five times.

Blood samples from both groups demonstrated a similar level of clonal diversity, but the composition of cell populations differed. For example, both groups contained clones with mutations in the DNMT3A gene, which is associated with the development of leukemia. Scientists drew attention to the fact that the changes in this gene in frequent donors did not affect the areas, which are usually considered to be prisoners.

For a deeper analysis, scientists edited the DNMT3A gene in human stem cells in the laboratory. They reproduced genetic changes associated with leukemia, as well as those that are observed in frequent donors, but do not attribute them to the prela Thecemic. Cells with mutations characteristic of frequent donors actively developed in an environment containing an erythropoetin hormone (EPO), but did not grow in an inflammatory environment. While cells with charcoemic mutations showed the opposite behavior.

In conclusion, the team transplanted human stem cells with two types of mutations in mice. Some of them were taken blood, after which they were injected to reproduce stress associated with blood donation. Cells with mutations characteristic of frequent donors developed normally in control conditions and contributed to the formation of red blood cells in conditions of stress, not turning into cancer. In contrast, charcoemic mutations led to a significant increase in the number of leukocytes in both control and stress conditions.