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Getty Images<\/p>\nPhilippa Roxby<\/p>\n
Health reporter<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
People who give blood regularly are more likely to have genetic changes in their blood that could cut the risk of cancer developing, a study suggests.<\/p>\n
The researchers, from the Francis Crick Institute, say the findings are “fascinating” and could help understanding of how and why blood cancers develop.<\/p>\n
Their study compared the blood of two groups of healthy male donors in their 60s – the first had given blood three times a year for 40 years, the other only about five times in total.<\/p>\n
Subtle genetic differences not linked to a high risk of blood cancer were present in more of the frequent-donor group – but because healthier people tend to give blood, this skews the picture.<\/p>\n
With age, the cells in the body – including the blood – naturally develop mutations, which increases the risk of diseases such as cancer developing. <\/p>\n
When people donate blood, stem cells in the bone marrow make new blood cells to replace the lost blood – and this could shape the stem cells’ genetic diversity.<\/p>\n
The researchers found a similar level of natural genetic mutations in the blood of the two groups – 217 frequent and 212 irregular donors.<\/p>\n
But the type of mutation in stem cells was subtly different in:<\/p>\n
Analysed in the lab, this mutation grew in a different way in different environments to other mutations linked to diseases such as leukaemia, a type of blood cancer.<\/p>\n
“It’s a type of mutation that is not associated with high risk of leukaemia development,” study author Dr Hector Huerga Encabo said.<\/p>\n
And when mice were injected with these human blood stem cells in the lab, the cells were found to be good at making red blood cells – a positive sign, Dr Encabo said.<\/p>\n
Everyday things<\/p>\n
The research, published in the journal Blood, was conducted with scientists in Heidelberg and with the help of the German Red Cross blood donation centre.<\/p>\n
But the results do not prove donating blood reduces the chances of early blood cancer mutations developing.<\/p>\n
“It might be that people who donate blood are more likely to be healthy if they’re eligible and this is also reflected in their blood-cell clones,” senior author Dominique Bonnet, who heads up a stem-cell laboratory at the Crick, said.<\/p>\n
And the research team now plans to analyse the blood of much larger numbers of people, including women.<\/p>\n
The current findings are a reminder that little everyday things – how people’s environment changes – as well as their age, affects their tissues and blood, changing the stem cells, Dr Encabo said.<\/p>\n
‘Healthy-donor effect’<\/p>\n
NHS Blood and Transplant said the research was “interesting” but further work was needed, because healthier people were more likely to donate.<\/p>\n
“The ‘healthy-donor effect’ makes it difficult to study donor health generally,” medical director Dr Lise Estcourt said.<\/p>\n
“However, the most important thing is that people chose to donate to improve the health of others.”<\/p>\n
Current stocks were “critically low”, the organisation added.<\/p>\n
Who can donate?<\/p>\n
In the UK, fit and healthy 17-65-year-olds can give blood – if they meet all the other criteria – but not if they have had cancer, an organ transplant or tested positive for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), among other reasons.<\/p>\n
And some people may have to wait, for example if they have had a baby in the past six months or recently had a tattoo or piercing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philippa Roxby Health reporter Getty Images People who give blood regularly are more likely to have genetic changes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[267,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-297721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114929270979066002","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}