A groundbreaking discovery about the origin of red blood cells has the potential to help cancer patients and those suffering from anemia. The hormone EPO, which converts cells in the bone marrow into oxygen-carrying red blood cells, has been found to originate from specific kidney cells named Norn cells. Professor Ido Amit of the Weizmann Institute of Science, who led the research, believes this discovery could be as significant as when scientists determined the pancreas can produce insulin. The breakthrough can be used to boost red blood cell count in cancer patients before surgery, avoiding blood infusions that can have negative long-term effects. Furthermore, using EPO to help patients with chronic kidney diseases and resulting anemia, which can be lethal, eliminates the need for combing different DNA molecules to create a new genetic combination. The hormone is known to be infamous for its illegal use as a doping agent in sports, but identifying Norn cells, which produce it, posed a significant challenge due to its small production amounts that spike rapidly, making it hard to identify individual cells. This research found fewer than 40 cells actively producing EPO out of the 3,000 kidneys cells studied. The study, published in the academic journal Nature Medicine, used advanced techniques to identify these rare cells, which could help in developing new approaches to reactivate malfunctioning Norns or renew their population in the kidney, similar to the therapies being used to reintroduce insulin-producing beta cells into the pancreas of people with diabetes.
