Ancestral TCDD exposure could induce epigenetic transgenerational phenotypes, which may be mediated in part by imprinted gene inheritance. The aim of our study was to evaluate the transgenerational effects of ancestral TCDD exposure on the imprinted gene insulin-like growth factor-2 (Igf2) in rat somatic tissue. TCDD was administered daily by oral gavage to groups of F0 pregnant SD rats at dose...

Gene silencing via non-coding RNA, such as siRNA and miRNA, can occur at the transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and translational stages of expression. Transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) involving the RNAi machinery generally occurs through DNA methylation, as well as histone post-translational modifications, and corresponding remodeling of chromatin around the target gene into a heteroch...

Estrogen signaling is mediated by ERα and ERβ in hormone dependent, breast cancer (BC). Over the last decade the implication of epigenetic pathways in BC tumorigenesis has emerged: cancer-related epigenetic modifications are implicated in both gene expression regulation, and chromosomal instability. In this review, the epigenetic-mediated estrogen signaling, controlling both ER level and ER-tar...

We report evidence of a detailed epigenetic modification of the leptin promoter and the effects of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs), which is closely associated with the leptin gene transcription in obesity. In the adipose tissue of diet induced obese (DIO) mice, methylation of the CpG island and the binding of methyl-CpG-binding domain protein 2 (MBD2) and DNA methyltransferases (DN...

Mammalian DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) establish and maintain genomic DNA methylation patterns that are required for proper epigenetic regulation of gene expression and maintenance of genome stability during normal development. Aberrant DNA methylation patterns are implicated in a variety of pathological conditions including cancer and neurological disorders. Rapid advances in genomic technol...

OBJECTIVE Despite the high prevalence of uterine leiomyoma in women, little is known about the pathophysiology of this tumor. This study intends to define the epigenetic modulation of this tumor. METHODS Twenty-three pairs of leiomyomas and their adjacent myometria were collected. Status of DNA global methylation was determined by using DNA methyl acceptance assay and immunohistochemistry sta...

DNA methylation is a covalent chemical modification of DNA catalyzed by DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs). DNA methylation is associated with transcriptional silencing and has been studied extensively as a lifelong molecular information storage mechanism put in place during development. Here we report that DNMT gene expression is upregulated in the adult rat hippocampus following contextual fear c...