The scientists searched databases from genetic studies involving tens of thousands of people whose DNA had been obtained from their white blood cells. White blood cells, the attack dogs of the immune system, arise from stem cells in the bone marrow. Sometimes, by chance, one of those marrow stem cells acquires a mutation, and the white blood cells it produces carry the same mutation. Nearly her entire supply of white blood cells was generated by mutated stem cells in her bone marrow. But how might mutated white blood cells cause heart disease?

Source: New York Times January 29, 2018 15:51 UTC