Donating your blood may have surprising health benefits

Your regular blood donation can handle your own health. Researchers have found early evidence that blood donation can cause useful changes in cells that fill our blood supply.

Scientists at the Creek Francis Institute and others conducted the study, published Tuesday in the magazine blood. By studying blood samples of frequent donors, scientists have identified genetic mutations in stem cells, which turn into blood cells that could improve the body’s blood loss, but without increasing the risk of cancer associated with blood as leukemia. The findings can help scientists better understand these cancers, although more studies are needed to know whether the donation is actually protecting people from the development of such conditions.

Many studies show A huge value of public health of a blood donation as well as General safety of the procedure for future donors. But according to research researchers, there was less focus on how blood donation could affect the health of frequent donors, especially when it comes to their hematopoietic stem cells, cells that replace every type of mature blood cells. Therefore, they decided to analyze HSC, collected from 200 older frequent donors – defined by donating more than 100 times throughout their lives – and compared to HSCS from sporadic donors from similar adults, which donate less than 10 times during their lives (control group).

When our HSC ripens, they will sometimes develop mutations that lead to a separate population of blood cells slightly genetically different from other blood cells. This phenomenon is called clonal hematopoiesis (CH) and populations are called clones. CH becomes more common with advancing age, but is usually harmless. Rarely, however, clones carry mutations that predispose them to become cancerous.

Researchers have found that frequent blood donors are almost as likely as sporadic donors to develop Ch. But when they looked more closely, they noticed that the clones of frequent donors carry mutations other than those in the control group, especially in a gene called DNMT3A (a common area of ​​genetic change in CH).

Further experiments with human HSC, edited by CRISPR, and with mice suggest that changes associated with DNMT3A observed in frequent donors can be positive. The changes seem to be intensified by the ability of cells to regenerate new red blood cells under stressful conditions that imitate, for example, blood loss. They do not grow in conditions that imitate inflammation (risk factor for cancer growth), while the opposite is true of HSC, which is known to be known to increase the risk of leukemia.

In general, researchers speculate that blood donation can give our blood stem cells a healthy workout that can even make them more resistant to cancer.

“Our work is a compelling example of how our genes interact with the environment and with advancing age,” says senior study author Dominic Bone, head of the HSC laboratory group in Crick, in a statement from the Institute. “Activities that put low levels of stress on blood cell production allow our blood stem cells to be renewed and we believe that this favors mutations that further promote the growth of stem cells, not the disease.”

Bonnet and her team note that it is not yet clear whether these open mutations are really preventing cancer. More studies and studies with a larger sample size are needed to reach the bottom of this issue that the team already plans to conduct. “Now we strive to understand how these different types of mutations play a role in the development of leukemia or not whether they can be therapeutically targeted,” said Co-leader Hurga Ecabo, a PhD at the HSC laboratory in Crick, in a statement.

But at least, researchers have not found something that should relate to a potential frequent blood donor. And if their work ultimately confirms the real benefit of practical cancer, it will be the latest in a long list of potential reasons why you need to donate blood if you can. In addition to the life-saving gift you give to others, the blood donation is associated with a lower risk of strokeFor example.