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. 2023 Aug 12;42(37):2713–2724. doi: 10.1038/s41388-023-02802-7

Table 2.

Summary of the mutational rates and proportion of tissue which possess somatic mutations in different types of normal tissue.

Organ Tissue Proportion with somatic mutations Mean number of mutations per basepair per year Reference
Lung Normal bronchial epithelium

Never-smokers: 4–14%

Current smokers: 25%

Never-smokers: 22 per cell

Ex-smokers: 2330 per cell

Smokers: 5300 per cell

[30]
Liver Cirrhotic liver parenchyma - 33 per diploid genome [32]
Normal hepatocytes -

Liver stem cells: 11 per cell per mitosis

Hepatocytes: 21 per cell per mitosis

[33]
Oesophagus Normal oesophageal squamous epithelium 24/25, 96% 41.5 per genome [19]
Small intestine Normal small intestinal epithelium -

Duodenum: 51 per crypt

Jejunum: 50 per crypt

Ileum: 42 per crypt

[12]
Colon Normal colonic epithelium 26/445, 5.8% 43.6 per crypt [45]
Ulcerative and crohn’s disease affected colonic epithelium - 95 per crypt [25]
Colorectal, ileal and duodenal epithelium from individuals with exonuclease domain mutations in POLE or POLD1 20/109, 18.3%

POLE L424V: 331 per crypt

POLD1 S478N: 152

POLD1 D316N and L474P: 58

[48]
MAP-affected colonic epithelium 22 / 144, 15%

MUTYH Y179C: 177

MUTYH Y104*: 193

MUTYH G286E: 145

[47]
Kidney Renal proximal tubule cells - 11.7–55.6 per genome [50]
Bladder Normal urothelium - 1879 per genome [52]
Normal urothelium from bladder and kidney - 2.2 per megabase DNA [54]
Prostate Benign prostatic epithelium in patients with prostatic cancer (mitochondrial DNA)

Adjacent benign: 19/24, 79.2%

Distant benign: 22/24, 91.7%

- [55]
Normal prostate epithelium - 16.4 per clone [18]
Endometrium Normal endometrium

1 driver: 147/257 glands, 57.2%

2 drivers: 42/257, 16.3%

≥4 drivers: 5/257, 1.9%

29 per gland [58]
Normal endometrium 551/891 glands [59]