Copyright
©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
New findings showing how DNA methylation influences diseases
Fabio Sallustio, Anna Gallone, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Bari 70121, Italy
Loreto Gesualdo, Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplantation Unit, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Bari 70121, Italy
Author contributions: Sallustio F, Gesualdo L and Gallone A conceived the study and drafted the manuscript; All the authors approved the final version of the article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interests to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Fabio Sallustio, MSc, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Piazza G. Cesare, 11, Bari 70124, Italy. fabio.sallustio@uniba.it
Telephone: +39-80-5478878
Received: September 5, 2018
Peer-review started: September 6, 2018
First decision: September 12, 2018
Revised: October 1, 2018
Accepted: December 5, 2018
Article in press: December 5, 2018
Published online: January 7, 2019
Peer-review started: September 6, 2018
First decision: September 12, 2018
Revised: October 1, 2018
Accepted: December 5, 2018
Article in press: December 5, 2018
Published online: January 7, 2019
Core Tip
Core tip: DNA methylation in eukaryotes acts as a hereditary regulation mechanism that influences gene expression and cell differentiation. Recently, we have begun to understand that the features of DNA methylation are not the same for all the cells. Major differences have been found between differentiated cells and stem cells. However, epigenetic modifications may take place throughout life and influence various diseases, and they are very important for improving the understanding of pathogenic mechanisms. New studies show that DNA methylation can also influence diseases that do not appear to be related to the environment.