title: Role of Epigenetics in Biology and Human Diseases.
abstract: For a long time, scientists have tried to describe disorders just by genetic or environmental factors. However, the role of epigenetics in human diseases has been considered from a half of century ago. In the last decade, this subject has attracted many interests, especially in complicated disorders such as behavior plasticity, memory, cancer, autoimmune disease, and addiction as well as neurodegenerative and psychological disorders. This review first explains the history and classification of epigenetic modifications, and then the role of epigenetic in biology and connection between the epigenetics and environment are explained. Furthermore, the role of epigenetics in human diseases is considered by focusing on some diseases with some complicated features, and at the end, we have given the future perspective of this field. The present review article provides concepts with some examples to reveal a broad view of different aspects of epigenetics in biology and human diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Alborz, Iran.
authors.forename: Azam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moosavi
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Motevalizadeh Ardekani
mesh_terms: D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000235:genetics*; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000235:genetics*; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D006657:Histones
keywords: DNA methylation; DNA modification; Gene expression