A major new British project hopes to identify genetic profiles for ‘super donors’ of haematopoietic stem cells, it was announced last week.
The NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) project will seek to understand the 40-fold difference in stem cell yields from donors, enabling the screening of donors before attempts are made to collect cells.
Existing research shows that age, sex, weight and ethnicity all influence stem cell yield, but this only explains 25% of the variation, NHSBT says.
To try and identify the genetic causes of the remaining 75% of variation, researchers in the study, known as GeSTy, will analyse DNA from stored and frozen samples from nearly 5,000 stem cell donors. They hope to finish the work by 2027.
The findings will help ensure donors can meet a minimum threshold for cell yield, NHSBT says. As many as 40% of people do not give adequate yield on their first donation and may have to undergo invasive procedures, such as bone marrow donation, while 5% of donors are never able to donate enough cells.
Researcher Professor Andrew Mumford, from the University of Bristol, said: “It’s a privilege to have helped with the technical design of this study which recognises the importance of the genetic characteristics of donors in determining stem cell yield. The study findings will increase the repertoire of genetic factors that are increasingly at the forefront of how we deliver care within the NHS.”
Researcher Dr Rachel Peck, from NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “NHS Blood and Transplant is carrying out this study because there can be big stem cell yield variations between fairly identical people. We think genes are likely to play a big part in that. There are around seven to eight genes we suspect play a part but the study will be ‘gene agnostic’; we’ll see if there are effects from genes we have not studied before.
“It’s likely to be your combination of genes rather than one or two which make the difference and the more stem cells you can give, the more likely the transplant will be a success.”
Source: NHS Blood and Transplant / University of Bristol.
https://bristol.ac.uk/news/2024/august/stem-cell-donors.html
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