Epigenetics and Diabetes Risk: Not Just for Imprinting Anymore?

摘要

Relationships of maternal obesity, diabetes, and nutrition during pregnancy with birth weight and in turn relationships between birth weight and risk of obesity and diabetes in later life have long been observed (rev. in 1). Elucidating the etiology of these relationships is challenging given that mammalian mothers impart both genes and intrauterine environment to their offspring. One factor that may play a role is epigenetics. Epigenetic effects are defined as heritable changes to DNA structure that do not involve changes to the DNA sequence. Unlike sequence changes, they can be reset or undone under certain conditions such as in early development. Mechanisms include changes in histone deacetylation and meth-ylation of cytosines in CpG clusters (2).