《生命科学》 2012, 24(2): 191-197
摘 要：摘 要：上皮细胞转分化现象及其与疾病发生发展的关系，近年已成为细胞生物学、免疫学等多学科关注的聚焦点。转分化作为细胞分化发育的基本生物学现象，存在于机体诸多生理病理过程，也受表观遗传学的调控。相对于经典遗传学而言，表观遗传学作为一门新兴学科，其为生物体的基因表达调控及遗传现象提供了新的理论阐释。现知，DNA 甲基化、组蛋白修饰及非编码RNA 等均可导致上皮细胞基因发生表观遗传改变，与上皮细胞转分化的发生发展密切相关，并在该过程中发挥重要的调控作用。进一步阐明细胞转分化的分子基础及其表观遗传学调控机制，将有助于认识生命现象基本过程，并可为炎症性疾病、自身免疫病、器官纤维化，以及肿瘤发生与转移等机制的研究与防治，提供新的思路和应对策略。对上皮细胞转分化与表观遗传学调控关系作一简述。
关键词：上皮细胞；转分化；表观遗传学；DNA 甲基化；组蛋白修饰；microRNA
Abstract: Abstract: Recently， the phenomenon of epithelial cell transdifferentiation has became a focus of multiple discipline such as cell biology and immunology， since it closely relates to pathogenesis and development of diseases in human， which including inflammatory diseases， organ fibrosis， tumorigenesis and metastasis. As a basically biological phenomenon in cellular differentiation and development， transdifferentiation exists in various physiological and pathological processes. The epigenetics can provide new theories to interpret the regulatory mechanism in gene expression and biological heredity. As is known that epigenetic changes of genes that mediated by DNA methylation， histone modification， and non-coding RNAs， play crucial roles in transdifferentiation of epithelial cells. Further identification of mechanisms of transdifferentiation will contribute to better understand of the basic processes in vital phenomenon and providing novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets for related diseases. This review describes the relationship between epithelial cell transdifferentiation and epigenetic regulation.
Key words: epithelial cells; transdifferentiation; epigenetics; DNA methylation; histone modification; microRNA
