Abstract
Fetal life is characterized by a tremendous plasticity and ability to respond to various environmental and lifestyle factors, including maternal nutrition. Identification of the role of dietary factors that can modulate and reshape the cellular epigenome during development, including methyl group donors (e.g., folate, choline) and bioactive compounds (e.g., polyphenols) is of great importance; however, there is insufficient knowledge of a particular effect of each type of modulator and/or their combination on fetal life. To enhance the quality and safety of food products for proper fetal health and disease prevention in later life, a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of dietary epigenetic modulators during the critical prenatal period is necessary. This review focuses on the influence of maternal dietary components on DNA methylation, histone modification, and microRNAs, and summarizes current knowledge of the effect and importance of dietary components on epigenetic mechanisms that control the proper expression of genetic information. Evidence reveals that some components in the maternal diet can directly or indirectly affect epigenetic mechanisms. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of how early-life nutritional environment affects the epigenome during development is of great importance for the successful prevention of adult chronic diseases through optimal maternal nutrition.
Highlights
Accumulating evidence demonstrates clearly that heritable changes in gene expression driven by epigenetic mechanisms play an important role in early development, and in the predisposition to future disease development
A major finding in the field of nutrition is discovering that dietary components may reshape the genome in utero and that epigenetic changes induced during early life may permanently alter the phenotype in the adult organism (Figure 1) [12,13]
Pogribny et al [46] demonstrated that feeding rats a methyl donor-deficient diet resulted in loss of histone H3K9 and H4K20 methylation accompanied by a decreased level of Suv4-20h2 and RIZ1 histone methyltransferases
Summary
Accumulating evidence demonstrates clearly that heritable changes in gene expression driven by epigenetic mechanisms play an important role in early development, and in the predisposition to future disease development. A major finding in the field of nutrition is discovering that dietary components may reshape the genome in utero and that epigenetic changes induced during early life may permanently alter the phenotype in the adult organism (Figure 1) [12,13]. This review highlights the nutritional epigenetic aspects of the contemporary maternal diet and summarizes current knowledge of the effect and importance of dietary components on DNA methylation, histone modifications, and miRNA expression in controlling the proper expression of development-related genes. Dietary components (amino acids, high-fat or high-glucose diet, vitamins, bioactive factors,) can affect genome function and gene expression in utero and during early life, influencing epigenetic mechanisms through folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism or transmethylation pathways to affect.
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