DeVries Avery, Vercelli Donata
1 Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine.
2 Functional Genomics Laboratory, Arizona Respiratory Center.
Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2016 Mar;13 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S48-50. doi: 10.1513/AnnalsATS.201507-420MG.
Asthma and allergic diseases are among the most prevalent chronic noncommunicable diseases of childhood, but the underlying pathogenetic mechanisms are poorly understood. Because epigenetic mechanisms link gene regulation to environmental cues and developmental trajectories, their contribution to asthma and allergy pathogenesis is under active investigation. DNA methylation signatures associated with concurrent disease and with the development of asthma during childhood asthma have been identified, but their significance is not easily interpretable. On the other hand, the characterization of early epigenetic predictors of asthma points to a potential role of epigenetic mechanisms in regulating the inception of, and the susceptibility to, this disease.
哮喘和过敏性疾病是儿童中最常见的慢性非传染性疾病,但潜在的发病机制仍知之甚少。由于表观遗传机制将基因调控与环境线索和发育轨迹联系起来,因此它们在哮喘和过敏发病机制中的作用正在积极研究中。已确定与儿童哮喘期间并发疾病和哮喘发展相关的DNA甲基化特征,但其意义不易解释。另一方面,哮喘早期表观遗传预测指标的特征表明表观遗传机制在调节该疾病的发病和易感性方面具有潜在作用。