Epigenetics in kidney development and renal disease

The study of epigenetics is intimately linked and inseparable from developmental biology. Many of the genes that imprint epigenetic information on chromatin function during the specification of cell lineages in the developing embryo. These include the histone methyltransferases and their cofactors of the Polycomb and Trithorax gene families. How histone methylation is established and what regulates the tissue and locus specificity of histone methylation is an emerging area of research. The embryonic kidney is used as a model to understand how DNA-binding proteins can specify cell lineages and how such proteins interact directly with the histone methylation machinery to generate a unique epigenome for particular tissues and cell types. In adult tissues, histone methylation marks must be maintained for normal gene expression patterns. In chronic and acute renal disease, epigenetic marks are being characterized and correlated with the establishment of metabolic memory, in part to explain the persistence of pathologies even when optimal treatment modalities are used. Thus, the state of the epigenome in adult cells must be considered when attempting to alleviate or alter gene expression patterns in disease.