ArticleeLife2024
What fraction of cellular DNA turnover becomes cfDNA?
Article in eLife, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Advancing the applications of liquid biopsies in oncology.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- Biological basis and clinical translation prospects of circulating cell-free DNA in precision management of breast cancer (Review).Oncology letters · 2026Review
- A plasma-based DNA test for quantification of disease burden in acute myeloid leukemia patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Longitudinal cell-free DNA methylome and fragmentome profiles in health uncover signatures of cell type and demographic origin.Genome medicine · 2026Article
- A plasma-based DNA test for quantification of disease burden in acute myeloid leukemia patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Accurate and reliable detection of clonal hematopoiesis in plasma cell-free DNA.Blood advances · 2026Article
- MUTE-Seq: An Ultrasensitive Method for Detecting Low-Frequency Mutations in cfDNA With Engineered Advanced-Fidelity FnCas9.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Article
- Epigenetic profiles of tissue informative CpGs inform ALS disease status and progression.Genome medicine · 2025Article
- Beyond the Blood Cell: The Emerging Role of Cell-Free DNA in Transfusion Medicine.Journal of hematology · 2025Review
- Circulating cell-free DNA methylation patterns indicate cellular sources of allograft injury after liver transplant.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Modulating cell-free DNA biology as the next frontier in liquid biopsies.Trends in cell biology · 2025Review
- CELL FREE DNA-BASED PREDICTION OF PROGNOSIS FOR PATIENTS ON VENO-ARTERIAL EXTRACORPOREAL MEMBRANE OXYGENATION.Shock (Augusta, Ga.) · 2025Article
- Circulating Cell-Free DNA as an Epigenetic Biomarker for Early Diabetic Retinopathy: A Narrative Review.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Evaluation of a biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis derived from a hypomethylated DNA signature of human motor neurons.BMC medical genomics · 2025Article
- Improvement of the sensitivity of circulating tumor DNA-based liquid biopsy: current approaches and future perspectives.Exploration of targeted anti-tumor therapy · 2025Review
- Sonobiopsy for sensitive and spatially targeted molecular diagnosis through integrating ultrasound with liquid biopsy.NPJ acoustics · 2025Review
- The Role of Breast Milk Cell-Free DNA in the Regulation of the Neonatal Immune Response.Nutrients · 2024Review
- Evaluation of a biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis derived from a hypomethylated DNA signature of human motor neurons.Research square · 2024Article
- Circulating, cell-free methylated DNA indicates cellular sources of allograft injury after liver transplant.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Dissemination of Circulating Tumor Cells in Breast and Prostate Cancer: Implications for Early Detection.Endocrinology · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) tests use small amounts of DNA in the bloodstream as biomarkers. While it is thought that cfDNA is largely released by dying cells, the proportion of dying cells' DNA that reaches the bloodstream is unknown. Here, we integrate estimates of cellular turnover rates to calculate the expected amount of cfDNA. By comparing this to the actual amount of cell type-specific cfDNA, we estimate the proportion of DNA reaching plasma as cfDNA. We demonstrate that <10% of the DNA from dying cells is detectable in plasma, and the ratios of measured to expected cfDNA levels vary a thousand-fold among cell types, often reaching well below 0.1%. The analysis suggests that local clearance, presumably via phagocytosis, takes up most of the dying cells' DNA. Insights into the underlying mechanism may help to understand the physiological significance of cfDNA and improve the sensitivity of liquid biopsies.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.