Role of Epigenetics in Biology and Human Diseases

For a long time, scientists have tried to describe disorders just by genetic or environmental factors. However, the role of epigenetics in human diseases has been considered from a half of century ago. In the last decade, this subject has attracted many interests, especially in complicated disorders...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Iranian biomedical journal 2016-11, Vol.20 (5), p.246-258
Main Authors: Moosavi, Azam, Motevalizadeh Ardekani, Ali
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Autoimmune Diseases - genetics
Chromatin
Chromosomes
DNA methylation
DNA Methylation - genetics
Epigenesis, Genetic - genetics
Epigenetics
Genetic Predisposition to Disease
Histones - metabolism
Humans
Neoplasms - genetics
Neurodegenerative Diseases - genetics
Review
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Summary:For a long time, scientists have tried to describe disorders just by genetic or environmental factors. However, the role of epigenetics in human diseases has been considered from a half of century ago. In the last decade, this subject has attracted many interests, especially in complicated disorders such as behavior plasticity, memory, cancer, autoimmune disease, and addiction as well as neurodegenerative and psychological disorders. This review first explains the history and classification of epigenetic modifications, and then the role of epigenetic in biology and connection between the epigenetics and environment are explained. Furthermore, the role of epigenetics in human diseases is considered by focusing on some diseases with some complicated features, and at the end, we have given the future perspective of this field. The present review article provides concepts with some examples to reveal a broad view of different aspects of epigenetics in biology and human diseases.
ISSN:1028-852X
2008-823X
DOI:10.22045/ibj.2016.01