A study has suggested that people who regularly give blood, their blood is more likely to change genetic changes that can cut the risk of cancer development, BBC,
According to the researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, the conclusions are “attractive” and can help understand how and why blood cancer develop.
Researchers’ studies compared blood of two groups of healthy male donors in their 60s – the first gave blood three times a year for 40 years, the second total only five times.
In the frequent-dacoity group, microscopic genetic differences were not associated with high risk of blood cancer, however, because healthy people do to give blood, it slant the picture.
Cells in the body – including blood – naturally develop mutations with age, which increases the risk of diseases such as cancer.
Stem cells in the bone marrow form new blood cells to replace lost blood when people donate blood and it can shape the genetic variety of stem cells.
A similar level of natural genetic mutations in the blood of two groups – 217 consecutive and 212 was found by irregular donors, researchers.
However, the type of mutation in stem cells was subtle formally:
- 50%of consistent donors.
- 30%of irregular donors.
This mutation, when analyzed in the laboratory, increased in a different way in different environments, which is associated with other mutations associated with diseases such as leukemia, a type of blood cancer.
“This is a type of mutation that is not associated with the high risk of leukemia development,” the author of the study, Dr. Hector Huigarga Enkabo said.
And when mice were injected with these human blood stem cells in the lab, the cells were found to be good in making red blood cells – a positive signal, DR Enkabo said.
