Regular blood donation might do more than just save lives—it could also provide unexpected health benefits for donors, according to new research.
A study from the Francis Crick Institute in London analyzing the blood of more than 200 men found that frequent blood donors – those who donated three times annually over 40 years – were more likely to develop genetic changes in their blood stem cells that could protect against leukemia, a cancer of the blood.
The research compared these individuals with sporadic donors who had given blood fewer than 10 times in their lifetime.
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“Activities that put low levels of stress on blood cell production allow our blood stem cells to renew, and we think this favors mutations that further promote stem cell growth rather than disease,” said Dominique Bonnet, senior author of the study.
Researchers studied blood stem cells, which change naturally over time, sometimes leading to blood cancers like leukemia. They found that while frequent blood donation didn’t increase or decrease these changes, it did affect the makeup of donor cells—especially a gene called DNMT3A, which is often mutated in leukemia patients.
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As with all studies, scientists have exercised caution on reading too far into the results, but are still positive that there are lessons to be learned.
“Our sample size is quite modest, so we can’t say that blood donation definitely decreases the incidence of pre-leukemic mutations, and we will need to look at these results in much larger numbers of people,” Bonnet explained.
“It might be that people who donate blood are more likely to be healthy if they’re eligible, and this is also reflected in their blood cell clones.
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“But the insight it has given us into different populations of mutations and their effects is fascinating.”
While more research is needed to confirm a direct link between frequent blood donation and reduced leukemia risk, the findings open the door to further exploration of how controlled stress on blood cell production might influence disease development.
