Blood Donation may not be purely altruistic
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Frequent blood donors may get more than a warm, unclear feeling of their altruism, as giving blood can also your ability to produce healthy blood cells, which potentially reduces the risk of developing card cancer.
Hector Huerga Boured at the Francis Crick Institute in London, and his colleagues analyzed genetic data extracted from blood cells donated by 217 men in Germany, between 60 and 72 who had given blood more than 100 times. They also look at samples from 212 men at a similar age who had donated blood fewer than 10 times, and found that frequent donors were more likely to have blood cells carrying certain mutations in a gene Dnmt3a.
To understand this differently engine the team genetically enhanced human blood stem cells – which give rise to all blood cells in the body – with these mutations and added them to laboratory wash along with modified cells. To mimic the effects of blood donation, they also added a hormone called EPO, which the body produces after blood loss, to some of the dishes.
In a month later, the cells of the frequent donor mutations had grown 50 percent rapidly than those without the mutations, but only in the dishes that contain the EPO. Without this hormone, both cell types grew at a similar speed.
“It suggests that every blood donation you want a burst of EPO in your system and this will favor the growth of cells with theses Dnmt3a Mutations, ”says Boat.
To investigate where it is bone ficual to have several of these mutated blood cells, the team mixed these with cells that carry mutations that increase the risk of leukemia, and again found that the frequent donor cells in the presence of the EPO essentially grew out of the tits and grew out of the tits and grew essentially out of the ter. This suggests that Dnmt3a Mutations are beneficial and can suppress the growth of cancer cells, says Boobo.
“It is as if the donation of blood is providing a selection press to improve the suitability of your stem cells and their ability to replenish,” says Ash Toye at the University of Bristol, UK. “Not only could you save someone’s life, but maybe you improve the suitability of your blood system.”
Further work is needed to reverse this is really the case, says Marc Mansour at University College London, as laboratory experiment gives a very simplified picture of what is happening in the body. “This must be validated in a much larger cohort across different ethnic groups across female and other age groups,” says Mansour. He also outdated that they donors without Dnmt3a Mutation may not see this advantage.
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