Research Sheds Light On The Genetics And Epidemiology Of Clonal Hematopoiesis
Research Sheds Light On The Genetics And Epidemiology Of Clonal Hematopoiesis An extensive new study from Amgen subsidiary deCODE genetics, which was published in Nature Genetics today, sheds light on the somatic and germline genetics of clonal hematopoiesis as well as its epidemiology. Utilising a novel somatic mutation Barcoding technique in conjunction with whole genome sequence data from Iceland and the UK Biobank, clonal hematopoiesis was examined at the population level. A situation known as clonal hematopoiesis occurs when a single clonal lineage of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) proliferates and provides a significant fraction of adult blood cells. The deCODE researchers identified clonal hematopoiesis in over 16,000 participants by analysing whole-genome sequence data from over 176,000 individuals. The study confirmed that clonal hematopoiesis is about 50% in individuals over 80 years of age, which is a fairly typical occurrence in the elderly. Individuals with clonal hematopo...