Children with Down’s syndrome are more likely to get leukaemia: stem-cells hint at why

Download the Nature Podcast 25 September 2024
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Children with Down’s syndrome have a 150-fold increased risk of developing leukaemia than those without the condition. Now, an in-depth investigation has revealed that changes to genome structures in fetal liver stem-cells seem to be playing a key role in this increase.
Down’s syndrome is characterized by cells having an extra copy of chromosome 21. The team behind this work saw that in liver stem-cells — one of the main places blood is produced in a growing fetus — this extra copy results in changes in how DNA is packaged in a nucleus, opening up areas that are prone to mutation, including those known to be important in leukaemia development.
The researchers hope their work will be an important step in understanding and reducing this risk in children with Down’s syndrome.
Research Article: Marderstein et al.
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