Inflammation plays a crucial role in stroke and affects not only the brain but the entire human body. One area of interest for VASCage research is the impact of blood, particularly haematopoiesis, on cardiovascular health. A new publication involving VASCage Centre on Clinical Stroke Research in the renowned scientific journal Blood has elucidated an important fundamental mechanism. The so-called clonal haematopoiesis—an aging-associated phenomenon—leads to the clonal expansion of blood cells, which can elicit inflammatory responses resulting in adverse health effects.
Former studies had established that blood cells harboring mutations in certain genes, such as DNMT3A, are preferentially multiplied. This new study, led by Professor Andreas Trumpp from the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany, presents a more diverse picture regarding the inflammatory potential of Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP). The researchers found that different environmental factors, such as frequent whole-blood donations or inflammatory stimuli—both exerting evolutionary selection pressure in the bone marrow—can preferentially select for sub-populations of blood cells with distinct genetic variants in the DNMT3A gene. “This discovery helps us understand how different environmental cues, which are also influenced by our lifestyle, can impact the aging processes of the blood and immune system, opening up many new questions for further research,” says former VASCage doctoral student Kai Zimmer, who was involved in this work together with Professor Dominik Wolf from the Department of Hematology at the Medical University of Innsbruck.
Link to publication https://doi.org/10.1182/blood.2024027999
