Emerging roles of epigenetic regulators during lung development

Abstract

Epigenetic pathways, including DNA methylation, non-coding RNAs, histone modification, and chromatin remodeling, control spatiotemporal gene expression and tightly coordinate the activities during embryogenesis. Emerging evidence indicates that epigenetic regulators are critically required for the maintenance of normal lung development and that the epigenetic marks are altered in lung cells during disease progression. In this review, we focus on the recent studies that have yielded insights into how the levels and patterns of epigenetic regulators are changed, and how these regulators contribute to the regulation of various stages during lung development. A deeper understanding of these epigenetic mechanisms could offer novel therapeutic targets for preventing fetal lung diseases.