Study finds hidden blood mutations spark obesity, diabetes and liver disease

UF Health Cancer Center researchers have found a surprising culprit behind common health problems like obesity, diabetes and fatty liver disease: silent genetic glitches in the blood system that occur naturally as people age.

The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, mean that in the future, simple blood tests could be developed to identify people most at risk early on, helping prevent chronic illnesses and cancer through strategies like diet or lifestyle changes.

“Most people don’t think about the blood as causing obesity and related diseases, but our surprising findings highlight that there’s a causal relationship between mutations in blood stem cells and metabolic diseases,” said lead author Bowen Yan, Ph.D., a research assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the UF College of Medicine.

As people age, stem cells in the bone marrow that produce blood cells gradually accumulate mutations in their DNA. Most mutations don’t cause any issues, but sometimes blood stem cells with a mutation can start crowding out their peers. Called clonal hematopoiesis, this condition affects about 10% of older people and is associated with an increased risk of blood cancers like leukemia.