Phenotypic plasticity and the epigenetics of human disease

It is becoming clear that epigenetic changes are involved in human disease as well as during normal development. A unifying theme of disease epigenetics is defects in phenotypic plasticity--cells' ability to change their behaviour in response to internal or external environmental cues. This mod...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature Vol. 447; no. 7143; pp. 433 - 440
Main Author Feinberg, Andrew P
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Nature Publishing Group 24.05.2007
Subjects
Cancer
Chromatin - genetics
Chromatin - metabolism
Disease
DNA Methylation
Environment
Epigenesis, Genetic - genetics
Epigenetics
Gene expression
Genetics
Genomic Imprinting - genetics
Genotype & phenotype
Humans
Neoplasms - genetics
Neoplasms - pathology
Plasticity
Stem cells
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Summary:It is becoming clear that epigenetic changes are involved in human disease as well as during normal development. A unifying theme of disease epigenetics is defects in phenotypic plasticity--cells' ability to change their behaviour in response to internal or external environmental cues. This model proposes that hereditary disorders of the epigenetic apparatus lead to developmental defects, that cancer epigenetics involves disruption of the stem-cell programme, and that common diseases with late-onset phenotypes involve interactions between the epigenome, the genome and the environment. Increased understanding of epigenetic-disease mechanisms could lead to disease-risk stratification for targeted intervention and to targeted therapies.
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ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
1476-4679
DOI:10.1038/nature05919