Epigenetic Medicine and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

Epigenetic medicine is still in its infancy. To date, only a handful of diseases have documented epigenetic correlates upstream of gene regulation including cancer, developmental syndromes and late-onset diseases. The finding that epigenetic markers are dynamic and heterogeneous at tissue and cellular levels, combined with recent identification of a new form of functionally distinct DNA methylation has opened a wider window for investigators to pry into the epigenetic world. It is anticipated that many diseases will be elucidated through this epigenetic inquiry. In this review, we discuss the normal course of DNA methylation during development, taking alcohol as a demonstrator of the epigenetic impact of environmental factors in disease etiology, particularly the growth retardation and neurodevelopmental deficits of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

KEYWORDS::

• 5-hydroxymethylcytosine
• developmental syndromes
• DNA methylation
• fetal alcohol syndrome
• late-onset disease
• transgenerational epigenetics

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Studies on the epigenetic neural program in FC Zhou‘s laboratory are supported by AA016698 and P50 AA07611. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

Studies on the epigenetic neural program in FC Zhou‘s laboratory are supported by AA016698 and P50 AA07611. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.