scholarly journals Transmission of Metabolic Dysfunction Across Generations

Physiology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Jaeger ◽  
Jessica L. Saben ◽  
Kelle H. Moley

Recent human and animal studies investigating the roles of the genome, epigenome, and environmental cues have identified associations between offspring predisposition to life-long obesity/metabolic disease and epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation. This review explores the mechanisms by which maternal exposures impair the health of not only the next generation but also potentially future generations of offspring.

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (20) ◽  
pp. 7552
Author(s):  
Jack Colicchio ◽  
John Kelly ◽  
Lena Hileman

Organisms alter development in response to environmental cues. Recent studies demonstrate that they can transmit this plasticity to progeny. While the phenotypic and transcriptomic evidence for this “transgenerational plasticity” has accumulated, genetic and developmental mechanisms remain unclear. Plant defenses, gene expression and DNA methylation are modified as an outcome of parental wounding in Mimulus guttatus. Here, we sequenced M. guttatus small RNAs (sRNA) to test their possible role in mediating transgenerational plasticity. We sequenced sRNA populations of leaf-wounded and control plants at 1 h and 72 h after damage and from progeny of wounded and control parents. This allowed us to test three components of an a priori model of sRNA mediated transgenerational plasticity—(1) A subset of sRNAs will be differentially expressed in response to wounding, (2) these will be associated with previously identified differentially expressed genes and differentially methylated regions and (3) changes in sRNA abundance in wounded plants will be predictive of sRNA abundance, DNA methylation, and/or gene expression shifts in the following generation. Supporting (1) and (2), we found significantly different sRNA abundances in wounded leaves; the majority were associated with tRNA fragments (tRFs) rather than small-interfering RNAs (siRNA). However, siRNAs responding to leaf wounding point to Jasmonic Acid mediated responses in this system. We found that different sRNA classes were associated with regions of the genome previously found to be differentially expressed or methylated in progeny of wounded plants. Evidence for (3) was mixed. We found that non-dicer sRNAs with increased abundance in response to wounding tended to be nearby genes with decreased expression in the next generation. Counter to expectations, we did not find that siRNA responses to wounding were associated with gene expression or methylation changes in the next generation and within plant and transgenerational sRNA plasticity were negatively correlated.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-92
Author(s):  
Rafael Penadés ◽  
Bárbara Arias ◽  
Mar Fatjó-Vilas ◽  
Laura González-Vallespí ◽  
Clemente García-Rizo ◽  
...  

Background: Epigenetic modifications appear to be dynamic and they might be affected by environmental factors. The possibility of influencing these processes through psychotherapy has been suggested. Objective: To analyse the impact of psychotherapy on epigenetics when applied to mental disorders. The main hypothesis is that psychological treatments will produce epigenetic modifications related to the improvement of treated symptoms. Methods: A computerised and systematic search was completed throughout the time period from 1990 to 2019 on the PubMed, ScienceDirect and Scopus databases. Results: In total, 11 studies were selected. The studies were evaluated for the theoretical framework, genes involved, type of psychotherapy and clinical challenges and perspectives. All studies showed detectable changes at the epigenetic level, like DNA methylation changes, associated with symptom improvement after psychotherapy. Conclusion: Methylation profiles could be moderating treatment effects of psychotherapy. Beyond the detected epigenetic changes after psychotherapy, the epigenetic status before the implementation could act as an effective predictor of response.


Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 490
Author(s):  
Xueqi Qu ◽  
Christiane Neuhoff ◽  
Mehmet Ulas Cinar ◽  
Maren Pröll ◽  
Ernst Tholen ◽  
...  

Inflammation is regulated by epigenetic modifications, including DNA methylation and histone acetylation. Sulforaphane (SFN), a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, is also a potent immunomodulatory agent, but its anti-inflammatory functions through epigenetic modifications remain unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the epigenetic effects of SFN in maintaining the immunomodulatory homeostasis of innate immunity during acute inflammation. For this purpose, SFN-induced epigenetic changes and expression levels of immune-related genes in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation of monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) were analyzed. These results demonstrated that SFN inhibited HDAC activity and caused histone H3 and H4 acetylation. SFN treatment also induced DNA demethylation in the promoter region of the MHC-SLA1 gene, resulting in the upregulation of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), MHC-SLA1, and inflammatory cytokines’ expression at 6 h of LPS stimulation. Moreover, the protein levels of cytokines in the cell culture supernatants were significantly inhibited by SFN pre-treatment followed by LPS stimulation in a time-dependent manner, suggesting that inhibition of HDAC activity and DNA methylation by SFN may restrict the excessive inflammatory cytokine availability in the extracellular environment. We postulate that SFN may exert a protective and anti-inflammatory function by epigenetically influencing signaling pathways in experimental conditions employing porcine moDCs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Bourguet ◽  
Colette L. Picard ◽  
Ramesh Yelagandula ◽  
Thierry Pélissier ◽  
Zdravko J. Lorković ◽  
...  

AbstractIn flowering plants, heterochromatin is demarcated by the histone variant H2A.W, elevated levels of the linker histone H1, and specific epigenetic modifications, such as high levels of DNA methylation at both CG and non-CG sites. How H2A.W regulates heterochromatin organization and interacts with other heterochromatic features is unclear. Here, we create a h2a.w null mutant via CRISPR-Cas9, h2a.w-2, to analyze the in vivo function of H2A.W. We find that H2A.W antagonizes deposition of H1 at heterochromatin and that non-CG methylation and accessibility are moderately decreased in h2a.w-2 heterochromatin. Compared to H1 loss alone, combined loss of H1 and H2A.W greatly increases accessibility and facilitates non-CG DNA methylation in heterochromatin, suggesting co-regulation of heterochromatic features by H2A.W and H1. Our results suggest that H2A.W helps maintain optimal heterochromatin accessibility and DNA methylation by promoting chromatin compaction together with H1, while also inhibiting excessive H1 incorporation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 4594
Author(s):  
Andrea Stoccoro ◽  
Fabio Coppedè

Epigenetic modifications of the nuclear genome, including DNA methylation, histone modifications and non-coding RNA post-transcriptional regulation, are increasingly being involved in the pathogenesis of several human diseases. Recent evidence suggests that also epigenetic modifications of the mitochondrial genome could contribute to the etiology of human diseases. In particular, altered methylation and hydroxymethylation levels of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have been found in animal models and in human tissues from patients affected by cancer, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, environmental factors, as well as nuclear DNA genetic variants, have been found to impair mtDNA methylation patterns. Some authors failed to find DNA methylation marks in the mitochondrial genome, suggesting that it is unlikely that this epigenetic modification plays any role in the control of the mitochondrial function. On the other hand, several other studies successfully identified the presence of mtDNA methylation, particularly in the mitochondrial displacement loop (D-loop) region, relating it to changes in both mtDNA gene transcription and mitochondrial replication. Overall, investigations performed until now suggest that methylation and hydroxymethylation marks are present in the mtDNA genome, albeit at lower levels compared to those detectable in nuclear DNA, potentially contributing to the mitochondria impairment underlying several human diseases.


2016 ◽  
Vol 373 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ching-Yu Yen ◽  
Hurng-Wern Huang ◽  
Chih-Wen Shu ◽  
Ming-Feng Hou ◽  
Shyng-Shiou F. Yuan ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 719-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan E Capozzi ◽  
Richard D DiMarchi ◽  
Matthias H Tschöp ◽  
Brian Finan ◽  
Jonathan E Campbell

Abstract Glucagonlike peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists have been efficacious for the treatment of type 2 diabetes due to their ability to reduce weight and attenuate hyperglycemia. However, the activity of glucagonlike peptide 1 receptor–directed strategies is submaximal, and the only potent, sustainable treatment of metabolic dysfunction is bariatric surgery, necessitating the development of unique therapeutics. GLP-1 is structurally related to glucagon and glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP), allowing for the development of intermixed, unimolecular peptides with activity at each of their respective receptors. In this review, we discuss the range of tissue targets and added benefits afforded by the inclusion of each of GIP and glucagon. We discuss considerations for the development of sequence-intermixed dual agonists and triagonists, highlighting the importance of evaluating balanced signaling at the targeted receptors. Several multireceptor agonist peptides have been developed and evaluated, and the key preclinical and clinical findings are reviewed in detail. The biological activity of these multireceptor agonists are founded in the success of GLP-1-directed strategies; by including GIP and glucagon components, these multireceptor agonists are thought to enhance GLP-1’s activities by broadening the tissue targets and synergizing at tissues that express multiple receptors, such at the brain and pancreatic isletβ cells. The development and utility of balanced, unimolecular multireceptor agonists provide both a useful tool for querying the actions of incretins and glucagon during metabolic disease and a unique drug class to treat type 2 diabetes with unprecedented efficacy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (01) ◽  
pp. 62-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Schenk ◽  
Walter Pulverer ◽  
Christine Koliamitra ◽  
Claus Bauer ◽  
Suzana Ilic ◽  
...  

AbstractPositive effects of exercise on cancer prevention and progression have been proposed to be mediated by stimulating natural killer (NK) cells. Because NK cell receptors are regulated by epigenetic modifications, we investigated whether acute aerobic exercise and training change promoter DNA methylation and gene expression of the activating KIR2DS4 and the inhibiting KIR3DL1 gene. Sixteen healthy women (50–60 years) performed a graded exercise test (GXT) and were randomized into either a passive control group or an intervention group performing a four-week endurance exercise intervention. Blood samples (pre-, post-GXT and post-training) were used for isolation of DNA/RNA of NK cells to assess DNA promoter methylation by targeted deep-amplicon sequencing and gene expression by qRT-PCR. Potential changes in NK cell subsets were determined by flow cytometry. Acute and chronic exercise did not provoke significant alterations of NK cell proportions. Promoter methylation decreased and gene expression increased for KIR2DS4 after acute exercise. A high gene expression correlated with a low methylation of CpGs that were altered by acute exercise. Chronic exercise resulted in a minor decrease of DNA methylation and did not alter gene expression. Acute exercise provokes epigenetic modifications, affecting the balance between the activating KIR2DS4 and the inhibiting KIR3DL1, with potential benefits on NK cell function.


Genes ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Barros-Silva ◽  
C. Marques ◽  
Rui Henrique ◽  
Carmen Jerónimo

DNA methylation is an epigenetic modification that plays a pivotal role in regulating gene expression and, consequently, influences a wide variety of biological processes and diseases. The advances in next-generation sequencing technologies allow for genome-wide profiling of methyl marks both at a single-nucleotide and at a single-cell resolution. These profiling approaches vary in many aspects, such as DNA input, resolution, coverage, and bioinformatics analysis. Thus, the selection of the most feasible method according with the project’s purpose requires in-depth knowledge of those techniques. Currently, high-throughput sequencing techniques are intensively used in epigenomics profiling, which ultimately aims to find novel biomarkers for detection, diagnosis prognosis, and prediction of response to therapy, as well as to discover new targets for personalized treatments. Here, we present, in brief, a portrayal of next-generation sequencing methodologies’ evolution for profiling DNA methylation, highlighting its potential for translational medicine and presenting significant findings in several diseases.


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