The Impact of External Factors on the Epigenome: In Utero and over Lifetime

Overview

Journal Biomed Res Int

Publisher Wiley

Specialties Biomedical Engineering
Biotechnology
General Medicine

Date 2016 Jun 14

PMID 27294112

Citations 39

Authors

Estela G Torano

Maria G Garcia

Juan Luis Fernandez-Morera

Pilar Nino-Garcia

Agustin F Fernandez

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Epigenetic marks change during fetal development, adult life, and aging. Some changes play an important role in the establishment and regulation of gene programs, but others seem to occur without any apparent physiological role. An important future challenge in the field of epigenetics will be to describe how the environment affects both of these types of epigenetic change and to learn if interaction between them can determine healthy and disease phenotypes during lifetime. Here we discuss how chemical and physical environmental stressors, diet, life habits, and pharmacological treatments can affect the epigenome during lifetime and the possible impact of these epigenetic changes on pathophysiological processes.

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