Epigenetics in the Eye: An Overview of the Most Relevant Ocular Diseases

Overview

Journal Front Genet

Date 2017 Oct 28

PMID 29075285

Citations 20

Authors

Hanan A Alkozi

Rafael Franco

Jesus J Pintor

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Sight for mammals is one of the most appreciated senses. In humans there are several factors that contribute to the increment in all kind of eye diseases. This mini-review will focus on some diseases whose prevalence is steadily increasing year after year for non-genetic reasons, namely cataracts, dry eye, and glaucoma. Aging, diet, inflammation, drugs, oxidative stress, seasonal and circadian style-of-live changes are impacting on disease prevalence by epigenetics factors, defined as stable heritable traits that are not explained by changes in DNA sequence. The mini-review will concisely show the data showing epigenetics marks in these diseases and on how knowledge on the epigenetic alterations may guide therapeutic approaches to have a healthy eye.

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