Blood-cell chromosome changes linked to disease and death
Carriers had a higher relative rate of death than noncarriers, with a hazard ratio of 1.21 over a median 14.34 years.
Limit: The human results cover UK Biobank participants only
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
An observational cohort study followed 452,594 UK Biobank participants, whose median age at blood testing was 58; 56.3% were female. Researchers examined mosaic chromosomal alterations—large chromosome changes present in some blood cells. They tracked disease diagnoses and deaths over a median 14.34 years.
The chromosome changes were linked to developing multiple diseases and to higher mortality. These associations persisted after excluding people with a separate form of blood-cell DNA change involving mutations in specific genes. People with both forms had a higher relative rate of death than people with neither, with a hazard ratio of 1.87. The authors also mapped chromosome regions associated with disease to identify candidate genes that might help account for the links.
Why it matters
Screening for age-related blood-cell DNA changes may need to consider chromosome alterations alongside gene mutations when assessing disease risk, the authors suggest.
Caveats
The human findings were observational and cannot establish that the chromosome changes caused disease or death. The results came from UK Biobank participants, and the preprint has not been peer-reviewed.
The paper
Moffitt Cancer Center
medRxiv, Jul 1, 2026, Open access, Preprint, not peer-reviewed
