Epigenetic mechanisms

Abstract

The incidence of diabetes and related complications like nephropathy is growing rapidly and has become a major health care issue. Changes in the environment and nutritional habits have been implicated as major players. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly clear that epigenetic factors may modulate the connections between genes and the environment. While diabetes in itself is treatable to a large extent, it is still associated with significantly increased risk for complications including chronic kidney and cardiovascular diseases. Current treatments have added preventative approaches so as to avoid future diabetic complications. Unfortunately, diabetic patients are often plagued with the continued development of various complications even after achieving glucose control. This has been suggested to be attributable to a mysterious phenomenon termed 'metabolic memory' of the prior glycemic state. Recent studies have suggested that epigenetic changes to chromatin can affect gene expression in response to various stimuli, and changes in key biochemical pathways and epigenetic histone and DNA methylation patterns in chromatin have been observed in a diabetic milieu. These accumulating data suggest that metabolic or hyperglycemic memory may be due to epigenetic changes in specific target tissues altering gene expression without changing the genetic code itself. While the genetics of diabetes has long been the focus of scientific research, much less is known about the role of epigenetics and the related molecular pathways that might affect the development of diabetes and the associated complications. Further studies of epigenetic mechanisms are therefore timely and could provide valuable new insights into the pathology of diabetic complications and also uncover much needed new therapeutic targets.