Epigenetics and Bone Remodeling.

Abstract

Bone remodeling is a diverse field of study with many direct clinical applications; past studies have implicated epigenetic alterations as key factors of both normal bone tissue development and function and diseases of pathologic bone remodeling. The purpose of this article is to review the most important recent advances that link epigenetic changes to the bone remodeling field. Epigenetics describes three major phenomena: DNA modification via methylation, histone side chain modifications, and short non-coding RNA sequences which work in concert to regulate gene transcription in a heritable fashion. Recent findings include the role of DNA methylation changes of Wnt, RANK/RANKL, and other key signaling pathways, epigenetic regulation of osteoblast and osteoclast differentiation, and others. Although much work has been done, much is still unknown. Future epigenome-wide studies should focus on extending the tissue coverage, integrating multiple epigenetic analyses with transcriptome data, and working to uncover epigenetic changes linked with early events in aberrant bone remodeling.