心血管疾病与表观遗传学研究进展

Research progress of epigenetics in cardiovascular disease

心血管疾病是环境与遗传因素共同影响的复杂疾病,DNA密码决定其是否发病。全基因组关联研究结果发现,存在于编码序列中的遗传密码并非心血管疾病的全部影响因素,隐藏在非编码序列中的遗传机制更能说明环境因素对心血管疾病的影响。在不改变DNA编码序列和染色质结构前提下对基因表达进行调控的机制被称为表观遗传学,主要包括DNA甲基化和羟甲基化、组蛋白修饰和RNA相关机制。本文就表观遗传学在心血管疾病研究中的重要性、表观遗传学的基本机制及其在心血管疾病诊断和治疗中的应用进展作一综述。

As a complex disease influenced jointly by environmental and genetic factors, the attack of cardiovascular disease is mainly determined by DNA code. Whereas Genome-wide Association Study （GWAS） has found that the hidden genetic mechanism in the non-coding sequences may better illustrate how environment affects the attack of the disease, besides the genetic code existing in coding sequences. It is defined as epigenetics to regulate gene expression without altering DNA coding sequences and chromatin structures, which mainly includes DNA methylation and hydroxyl methylation, histone modification and RNA related mechanisms. This paper reviews the research progress of the importance of epigenetics in cardiovascular disease, the basic mechanism of epigenetles, and the application of epigenetics in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease.