People with Down's syndrome face a higher risk of developing Leukemia. Now researchers from the University of Copenhagen and Stanford University explain why, by identifying specific changes in blood cells of people with Down's syndrome. In the world, one out of 700 children are born with Down's syndrome.
A syndrome, where the child has an extra copy of chromosome 21, resulting in 47 chromosomes instead of 46. This typically results in characteristic physical features and some level of learning disability. But newborns with Downs syndrome also tend to have an elevated number of red blood cells, and as they grow older, they face a 150-fold higher risk of developing leukemia compared to those without the condition.
"Our study revealed that the additional chromosome 21 alters how DNA is packed inside the cells. This difference affects how certain genes are regulated and can contribute to the development of leukemia," explains Rebecca Moller, one of the researchers from University of Copenhagen behind the new study. To more precisely understand the impact of the extra chromosome 21, the researchers sequenced the genes of over 1.
1 million cells from fetuses with and without Down's syndrome. "Interestingly, the dysregulations are not uniform and vary depending on the cell type and its environment. We found for example that blood stem cells in individuals with Down's syndrome show dysregulations of genes involved in making red blood cells, explaining the symptoms in newborns" says Pr.