IMR Press / FBE / Volume 5 / Issue 3 / DOI: 10.2741/E669

Frontiers in Bioscience-Elite (FBE) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 2 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Review

Epigenetic aberration of gene expression in endometriosis

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1 Department of Biosignaling, Tottori University Faculty of Medicine, Yonago, Japan
2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tottori University Faculty of Medicine, Yonago, Japan

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

 

Front. Biosci. (Elite Ed) 2013, 5(3), 900–910; https://doi.org/10.2741/E669
Published: 1 June 2013
Abstract

Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent inflammatory disease. In endometriotic tissues, a highestrogen environment associated with up-regulation of the aromatase gene has been well documented. There is accumulating evidence supporting a concept that endometriosis is a disease associated with an epigenetic disorder. Epigenetics is one of the most expanding fields in the current biomedical research. The word ‘epigenetics’ refers to the study of mitotically and/or meiotically heritable changes in gene expression that occur without changes in the DNA sequence. The disruption of such changes (epigenetic aberration or disorder) underlies a wide variety of pathologies. Epigenetic regulation includes DNA methylation and histone modifications, and is responsible for a number of gene transcription associated with chromatin modifications that distinguish the states of diseases. In this review, we summarized our studies as well as recent studies from other laboratories using an epigenetic approach focused on DNA methylation. We also summarized studies using advanced technologies including Genome-Wide (GW) methylation profiling analysis and GW Association Study (GWAS). We reviewed recent monozygotic twins studies in relation to environmental factors since they may provide insight into the epigenetic background of endometriosis. Finally, we referred to a new concept of GW DNA methylation.

Keywords
Aberrant Gene Expression
Epigenetic Disorder
Aberrant DNA Methylation
Endometriosis
Review
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