Environmental Epigenetics Laboratory, Department of Medical and Clinical Genetics, Medicum, University of Helsinki, 00290 Helsinki, Finland.
Genes (Basel). 2021 Jul 19;12(7):1095. doi: 10.3390/genes12071095.
Prenatal alcohol exposure is one of the most significant causes of developmental disability in the Western world. Maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy leads to an increased risk of neurological deficits and developmental abnormalities in the fetus. Over the past decade, several human and animal studies have demonstrated that alcohol causes alterations in epigenetic marks, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, and non-coding RNAs. There is an increasing amount of evidence that early pregnancy is a sensitive period for environmental-induced epigenetic changes. It is a dynamic period of epigenetic reprogramming, cell divisions, and DNA replication and, therefore, a particularly interesting period to study the molecular changes caused by alcohol exposure as well as the etiology of alcohol-induced developmental disorders. This article will review the current knowledge about the in vivo and in vitro effects of alcohol exposure on the epigenome, gene regulation, and the phenotype during the first weeks of pregnancy.
产前酒精暴露是西方世界导致发育障碍的最重要原因之一。母亲在怀孕期间饮酒会导致胎儿神经系统缺陷和发育异常的风险增加。在过去的十年中，几项人类和动物研究表明，酒精会导致表观遗传标记的改变，包括 DNA 甲基化、组蛋白修饰和非编码 RNA。越来越多的证据表明，早期妊娠是环境诱导的表观遗传变化的敏感时期。这是一个表观遗传重新编程、细胞分裂和 DNA 复制的动态时期，因此，这是一个研究酒精暴露引起的分子变化以及酒精引起的发育障碍病因的特别有趣的时期。本文将综述在体内和体外条件下，酒精暴露对妊娠最初几周内的表观基因组、基因调控和表型的影响。
