Epigenetic Modifications in the Pathogenesis of Systemic Sclerosis

Jiangfan Yu; Rui Tang; Ke Ding

doi:10.2147/IJGM.S356877

Epigenetic Modifications in the Pathogenesis of Systemic Sclerosis

Int J Gen Med. 2022 Mar 19:15:3155-3166. doi: 10.2147/IJGM.S356877. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jiangfan Yu¹, Rui Tang², Ke Ding³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Dermatology, Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, 410011, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, 410011, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Urology, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, 410008, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Systemic sclerosis is a rare chronic autoimmune disease, which mainly manifests as immune disorders, vascular damage, and progressive fibrosis. The etiology of SSc is complex and involves multiple factors. Both genetic and environmental factors are involved in its pathogenesis. As one of the molecular mechanisms of environmental factors, epigenetic regulation plays an important role in the occurrence and development of systemic sclerosis, which involves DNA methylation, histone modification and non-coding RNA regulation. This review summarizes research advances in epigenetics, including exosomes, lncRNA, and mentions possible biomarkers and therapeutic targets among them.

Keywords: biomarkers; epigenetics; pathogenesis; systemic sclerosis.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82003363 and No. 82001738), the Changsha Municipal Natural Science Foundation (kq2007059), and Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (2021JJ40820).