The Roles of Epigenetics Regulation in Bone Metabolism and Osteoporosis

Fei Xu; Wenhui Li; Xiao Yang; Lixin Na; Linjun Chen; Guobin Liu

doi:10.3389/fcell.2020.619301

The Roles of Epigenetics Regulation in Bone Metabolism and Osteoporosis

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2021 Jan 25:8:619301. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2020.619301. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Fei Xu^{1

2}, Wenhui Li^{2

3}, Xiao Yang⁴, Lixin Na^{2

5}, Linjun Chen¹, Guobin Liu⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Medical Technology, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, China.
² Collaborative Innovation Center, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, China.
³ College of Clinical Medicine, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Traditional Chinese Vascular Surgery, Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
⁵ College of Public Health, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Osteoporosis is a metabolic disease characterized by decreased bone mineral density and the destruction of bone microstructure, which can lead to increased bone fragility and risk of fracture. In recent years, with the deepening of the research on the pathological mechanism of osteoporosis, the research on epigenetics has made significant progress. Epigenetics refers to changes in gene expression levels that are not caused by changes in gene sequences, mainly including DNA methylation, histone modification, and non-coding RNAs (lncRNA, microRNA, and circRNA). Epigenetics play mainly a post-transcriptional regulatory role and have important functions in the biological signal regulatory network. Studies have shown that epigenetic mechanisms are closely related to osteogenic differentiation, osteogenesis, bone remodeling and other bone metabolism-related processes. Abnormal epigenetic regulation can lead to a series of bone metabolism-related diseases, such as osteoporosis. Considering the important role of epigenetic mechanisms in the regulation of bone metabolism, we mainly review the research progress on epigenetic mechanisms (DNA methylation, histone modification, and non-coding RNAs) in the osteogenic differentiation and the pathogenesis of osteoporosis to provide a new direction for the treatment of bone metabolism-related diseases.

Keywords: DNA methylation; epigenetics; histone modification; non-coding RNA; osteoporosis.

Publication types

Review