Epigenome-wide association studies: the exposures of yesterday form the methylations of tomorrow

Extract Technological advances spur scientific discovery. This is certainly true for epigenomics, particularly DNA methylation (DNAm) analysis. Illumina's Infinium bead array platform has drastically evolved since the first array in 2010, now capturing >850 000 DNAm sites and has been used in over 8500 publicly available human datasets (gene expression omnibus; www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) spanning multiple organs, tissues and cell types. DNAm describes when a methyl group is chemically bound to a cytosine residue in DNA. The presence of this group can sterically interfere with gene expression through various complex mechanisms. Out of all the epigenetic modifications, DNAm is well understood and studied. Importantly, changes in DNAm are potentially mediated by environmental exposures such as smoking, particulate matter, diet, lifestyle, cultural factors and socioeconomic status (SES) (forming the "exposome"), as well as tissue- or cell-specific exposures [1]. As such, DNAm functions as a fingerprint of lifetime exposures, as a "molecular memory", that extends transgenerationally [2]. Furthermore, changes in DNAm have been linked to prominent diseases such as asthma.
Source: European Respiratory Journal - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Editorials Source Type: research