TY - JOUR A1 - Holstege, Henne A1 - Pfeiffer, Wayne A1 - Sie, Daoud A1 - Hulsman, Marc A1 - Nicholas, Thomas J. A1 - Lee, Clarence C. A1 - Ross, Tristen A1 - Lin, Jue A1 - Miller, Mark A. A1 - Ylstra, Bauke A1 - Meijers-Heijboer, Hanne A1 - Brugman, Martijn H. A1 - Staal, Frank J.T. A1 - Holstege, Gert A1 - Reinders, Marcel J.T. A1 - Harkins, Timothy T. A1 - Levy, Samuel A1 - Sistermans, Erik A. T1 - Somatic mutations found in the healthy blood compartment of a 115-yr-old woman demonstrate oligoclonal hematopoiesis Y1 - 2014/05/01 JF - Genome Research JO - Genome Research SP - 733 EP - 742 DO - 10.1101/gr.162131.113 VL - 24 IS - 5 UR - http://genome.cshlp.org/content/24/5/733.abstract N2 - The somatic mutation burden in healthy white blood cells (WBCs) is not well known. Based on deep whole-genome sequencing, we estimate that approximately 450 somatic mutations accumulated in the nonrepetitive genome within the healthy blood compartment of a 115-yr-old woman. The detected mutations appear to have been harmless passenger mutations: They were enriched in noncoding, AT-rich regions that are not evolutionarily conserved, and they were depleted for genomic elements where mutations might have favorable or adverse effects on cellular fitness, such as regions with actively transcribed genes. The distribution of variant allele frequencies of these mutations suggests that the majority of the peripheral white blood cells were offspring of two related hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) clones. Moreover, telomere lengths of the WBCs were significantly shorter than telomere lengths from other tissues. Together, this suggests that the finite lifespan of HSCs, rather than somatic mutation effects, may lead to hematopoietic clonal evolution at extreme ages. ER -