Hilliard Sylvia A, El-Dahr Samir S
Department of Pediatrics, Tulane University, School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA.
Yale J Biol Med. 2016 Dec 23;89(4):565-573. eCollection 2016 Dec.
An understanding of epigenetics is indispensable to our understanding of gene regulation under normal and pathological states. This knowledge will help with designing better therapeutic approaches in regenerative tissue medicine. Epigenetics allows us to parse out the mechanisms by which transcriptional regulators gain access to specific gene loci thereby imprinting epigenetic information affecting chromatin function. This epigenetic memory forms the basis of cell lineage specification in multicellular organisms. Post-translational modifications to DNA and histones in the nucleosome core form characteristic epigenetic codes which are distinct for self-renewing and primed progenitor cell populations. Studies of chromatin modifiers and modifications in renal development and disease have been gaining momentum. Both congenital and adult renal diseases have a gene-environment component, which involves alterations to the epigenetic information imprinted during development. This epigenetic memory must be characterized to establish optimal treatment of both acute and chronic renal diseases.
对表观遗传学的理解对于我们理解正常和病理状态下的基因调控不可或缺。这些知识将有助于在再生组织医学中设计出更好的治疗方法。表观遗传学使我们能够解析转录调节因子进入特定基因位点的机制,从而印记影响染色质功能的表观遗传信息。这种表观遗传记忆构成了多细胞生物中细胞谱系特化的基础。核小体核心中DNA和组蛋白的翻译后修饰形成了特征性的表观遗传密码,这对于自我更新和已启动的祖细胞群体是不同的。对染色质修饰剂及其在肾脏发育和疾病中的修饰的研究一直在加速。先天性和成人肾脏疾病都有基因-环境成分,这涉及发育过程中印记的表观遗传信息的改变。必须对这种表观遗传记忆进行表征,以建立急性和慢性肾脏疾病的最佳治疗方法。