 This suggests abrogation of differentiation in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and an increase in self-renewal cell-division instead.Indeed, it was found that differentiation was partially rescued if "Dnmt3a-/-" HSCs experienced an additional "Ctnb1" knockdown – Ctnb1 codes for β-catenin, which participates in self-renewal cell division.This gene is frequently mutated in cancer, being one of 127 frequently mutated genes identified in the Cancer Genome Atlas project DNMT3A mutations were most commonly seen in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) where they occurred in just over 25% of cases sequenced.