Chronic Stress May Cause Long-Lasting Epigenetic Changes

"Long-term exposure to a common stress hormone may leave a lasting mark on the genome and influence how genes that control mood and behavior are expressed, a mouse study led by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests."

Read more: Chronic Stress May Cause Long-Lasting Epigenetic Changes:

Regulatory T Cell (Tregs) Production Dependant on Methylation Modifications~!

Background: New report support that the balance of Tregs need to be maintained for suppression of immune functions that lead to autoimmune-type reactions including those that may be seen in diabetes, colitis and lupus. In previous blogs, I suggest that loss of Tregs may influence the development of chemical sensitivity through the loss of Treg suppression and "loss of tolerance" and has been suggested by other authors. In the past, I have also reviewed several research studies that identify how recent findings of aberrant methylation influence environmental disease including autism, endometriosis and PTSD.

Interesting the following study by Floess shows that epigenetic modifications must occur with immune cells for cells to develop into "suppressor-type" lineages of Tregs. Therefore, alterations in methylation may negatively influence the development of Treg cells and could cause or augment environmental disease. This also provides a mechanism for what appears an inheritability of environmental disease.

Floess, S., Freyer, J., Siewert, C., Baron, U., Olek, S., Polansky, J., Schlawe, K., Chang, H.-D., Bopp, T., Schmitt, E., Klein-Hessling, S., Serfling, E., Hamann, A., and Huehn, J. (2007). Epigenetic control of the foxp3 locus in regulatory t cells. PLoS Biol, 5(2):e38+.
http://www.citeulike.org/user/HEIRS/article/1080288

Green Tea Activates Reexpression of Glutathione Via Methylation Mechanisms.

New study demonstrates that green tea polyphenols (GTP) has dual potential to alter DNA methylation and chromatin modeling and reexpression of glutathione transferase, the 2 global epigenetic mechanisms of gene regulation and their lack of toxicity makes them excellent candidates for the chemoprevention of prostate cancer.

CiteULike: Promoter demethylation and chromatin remodeling by green tea polyphenols leads to re-expression of GSTP1 in human prostate cancer cells.: "Pandey, M., Shukla, S., and Gupta, S. (2010). Promoter demethylation and chromatin remodeling by green tea polyphenols leads to re-expression of gstp1 in human prostate cancer cells. International journal of cancer. Journal international du cancer, 126(11):2520-2533."

Hormone Modulates Immune Cell Activation after Cigarette Smoke Exposure in Mice.

Recent study says leptin may modulate the immune responses from cigarette smoke. Other studies demonstrate that leptin and Il-6 may be involved with sickness syndrome and may include modulation of hormones that regulate behavior such as orexins and may contribute to inflammation-induced insulin resistance.

Notes: Recent study also demonstrates that cigarette smoke induced epigenetic changes in epithelial cells in vitro that may contribute to cancer growth.

CiteULike: Leptin Modulates Innate and Adaptive Immune Cell Recruitment after Cigarette Smoke Exposure in Mice.: "Vernooy, J. H., Bracke, K. R., Drummen, N. E., Pauwels, N. S., Zabeau, L., van Suylen, R. J. J., Tavernier, J., Joos, G. F., Wouters, E. F., and Brusselle, G. G. (2010). Leptin modulates innate and adaptive immune cell recruitment after cigarette smoke exposure in mice. Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950)."


HEIRS H&H






Harden, L. M., du Plessis, I., Poole, S., and Laburn, H. P. (2006). Interleukin-6 and leptin mediate lipopolysaccharide-induced fever and sickness behavior. Physiology & behavior, 89(2):146-155.
http://www.citeulike.org/user/HEIRS/article/4745011
Liu, F., Killian, J. K., Yang, M., Walker, R. L., Hong, J. A., Zhang, M., Davis, S., Zhang, Y., Hussain, M., Xi, S., Rao, M., Meltzer, P. A., and Schrump, D. S. (2010). Epigenomic alterations and gene expression profiles in respiratory epithelia exposed to cigarette smoke condensate. Oncogene, aop(current).
http://www.citeulike.org/user/HEIRS/article/7154109

Study Reveals How Genes Interact With Environment To Cause Disease

Study Reveals How Genes Interact With Environment To Cause Disease: "Study Reveals How Genes Interact With Environment To Cause Disease"











Learn more about gene biology.

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Non-CpG methylation of the PGC-1alpha promoter through DNMT3B controls mitochondrial density.

CiteULike: Non-CpG methylation of the PGC-1alpha promoter through DNMT3B controls mitochondrial density.: "Barrès, R., Osler, M. E., Yan, J., Rune, A., Fritz, T., Caidahl, K., Krook, A., and Zierath, J. R. (2009). Non-cpg methylation of the pgc-1alpha promoter through dnmt3b controls mitochondrial density. Cell metabolism, 10(3):189-198."

Nrf2 Expression Is Regulated by Epigenetic Mechanisms in Prostate Cancer

CiteULike: Nrf2 Expression Is Regulated by Epigenetic Mechanisms in Prostate Cancer of TRAMP Mice: "S. Yu, T. O. Khor, K.-L. Cheung, W. Li, T.-Y. Wu, Y. Huang, B. A. Foster, Y. W. Kan, and A.-N. Kong, PLoS ONE 5, e8579+ (2010), URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008579."


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Oxidative stress induced lung cancer and copd: opportunities for epigenetic therapy.

Oxidative stress induced lung cancer and copd: opportunities for epigenetic therapy.


Lawless, M. W., O'Byrne, K. J., and Gray, S. G. (2009). Oxidative stress induced lung cancer and copd: opportunities for epigenetic therapy. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, 13(9a):2800-2821http://www.citeulike.org/user/HEIRS/article/6307378.