In what form does cfDNA exist?
Last time we saw that DNA is released into blood by cells. But in what form is it released? We know that DNA remains stable inside the cell. But what happens to it when it comes out of the cell? Does it remain stable? Well, cell-free DNA is known to exist in many forms. Free DNA fragments One is that of a free or unbound DNA fragment, that is, the DNA fragment by itself without being bound to any surface. But without being bound to anything, can DNA be stable in blood? A good question, as our blood is known to contain proteins that can destroy DNA, called as DNases . But some studies reported that the activity of DNases was low in some diseases. For example, Svetlana Tamkovich and their group, in 2006, compared DNase activity with cell-free DNA concentration in cancer patients. They found that DNase activity was low in cancer patients, but high in normal people. This means that more amount of cell-free DNA can survive in the blood of cancer patients than in the bl...