Blood stem cells are vulnerable to DNA damage that can persist for several years, according to a new UK study which casts new light on the origins of blood cancers.
A team led by researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, say this arises from a kind of DNA damage that leads to around 15 to 20% of the mutations in these cells. Even worse, they report, cells try to copy the damaged DNA, leading to further mistakes and multiple mutations from a single source of DNA damage.
The discoveries have emerged from a project that sought to identify the “family trees” of single cells from several individuals by studying patterns of shared mutations.
Reporting in Nature, the researchers say they found unexpected patterns of mutation inhe...
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