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The cause of MDS
Hi Krista,
There is no answer to your questions yet. You ask if the damage has occured to the bone marrow cells, to the stem cells, the blood cells or to the body´s ability to identify foreign cells in the body.
If the stem cells in the bone marrow are damaged the blood cells will be damaged since they develope from stem cells.
You can see in this abstract from PubMed what some researchers have written lately about the cause of MDS:
"Molecular Targets in Myelodysplastic Syndromes
Hofmann WK, Nolte F.
Department of Hematology and Oncology, University Hospital Benjamin Franklin, Charité, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203 Berlin, Germany.
Cancer Treat Rev. 2007 Sep 27
Myelodysplastic syndromes are characterized by peripheral cytopenias (few cells) in combination with a hyperplastic (tending to excess of formative action) bone marrow.
The classification according to the WHO includes mainly morphological criteria (the form of the blood cells like abnormal granules in cells, abnormal nuclear shape and size) and is supplemented by the International Prognostic Scoring System which takes cytogenetical changes (development and variation of cells like damage to the chromosomes or DNA of bone marrow cells) into consideration when determining the prognosis of MDS.
The underlying mechanisms causing primary MDS requires further work. Different molecular alterations which have been described, suggest that it is a multistep alteration to the haematopoietic stem cells that include genes involved in cell cycle control, mitotic checkpoints as well as growth factor receptors.
Secondary signal proteins and transcription factors which gives the cell a growth advantage over its normal counterpart, may be affected as well. The accumulation of such defects may finally cause the leukaemic transformation of MDS."
Kind regards
Birgitta
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