Human blood retains DNA-marking patterns formed before birth
Each blood cell carried about 300,000 acquired DNA-marking changes before birth, including more than 3,000 in large segments that remained stable for decades.
Our read
Mechanisms- Studied:
- Preprint: cross-sectional study of 13 individuals with healthy or malignant blood formation
- What changed:
- Each blood cell retained >3000 prenatal DNA-marking changes in large segments stable for decades
- The catch:
- Only 13 individuals supplied the blood-forming cells
- In the record:
- The 34th paper on DNMT3A with results in people; 267 on record in all.
- Why it’s aging research:
- It studies something that builds up in the body with age.
Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Human blood from 13 individuals, spanning 17 weeks after conception to age 77, was examined in an observational study. Researchers analyzed DNA sequences and methylation—chemical marks on DNA that help control gene activity—in 1,183 colonies grown from single blood-forming cells. The group included identical twins and ranged from healthy blood formation to blood cancer.
The researchers identified about 250,000 large DNA segments where cells of the same type within an individual inherited different marking patterns. Many patterns recurred between individuals. Methylation-based measures of biological age reflected the division history of the groups of related cells that dominated blood, rather than the individual's age. Many marking differences between expanding groups of cells and surrounding blood, including in blood cancer, traced back to states inherited from before birth.
Why it matters
DNA methylation changes with aging and can alter gene activity. The authors conclude that inherited variation in these marks provides another basis for evolution among cells within the body.
Caveats
The analysis reconstructed cell histories from lab-grown colonies and covered blood-forming cells, not other tissues. It included 13 individuals and is a Research Square preprint that has not been peer-reviewed.
- DNA methylation
- Epigenetic regulation of gene expression
- Blood cancer
- Cancer
- DNA methylation at Polycomb-associated regulatory regions
- Humans
The paper
Evolution of the human methylome in blood from embryo to ageing and cancer
Wellcome Sanger Institute; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Research Square, Nov 4, 2026, Open access, Preprint, not yet peer-reviewed
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