Inflammatory support cells in the immune system, which rush to eliminate pathogens, can play a key role in damaging bone marrow in the early stages of cancer development. Normally, bone marrow produces millions of new blood and immune cells, maintaining a delicate balance between them, along with unspecialized cells such as stem cells.
However, aging, persistent inflammation, and mutations can disrupt this balance, increasing the risk of blood cancers, heart disease, and premature death. But it remains unclear exactly how the bone marrow environment contributes to blood disorders.
In a new study, researchers analyzed bone marrow samples collected at the National Tumor Center in Dresden. They evaluated samples taken from healthy donors and individuals with myelodysplastic syndrome, a bone marrow disorder that develops into an aggressive leukemia and is often fatal in up to one-third of cases.
They found that inflammation in the bone marrow environment caused by special cells, called inflammatory stromal cells, was a major force in the early stages of blood disease.
"Our results reveal that the bone marrow microenvironment actively shapes the early stages of malignant development," said Burhan Gökç, one of the authors of the study published in the journal Nature Communications.
Researchers say bone marrow appears to be both a target and a driver of systemic inflammatory aging. They hope these findings will lead to a better understanding of "inflammatory aging," the chronic, low-grade inflammation underlying many age-related disorders such as cancer and heart disease.
Judith Zog, another author of the study, said: "This has important implications for therapies that replace malignant cells but leave the bone marrow site intact, such as hematopoietic stem cell transplants. We are now investigating how much the site retains disease memory, which could shape how it responds to new, healthy stem cells."
