Epidemiological
evidence increasingly suggests that environmental exposures early in
development have a role in susceptibility to disease in later life. In
addition, some of these environmental effects seem to be passed on through
subsequent generations. Epigenetic modifications provide a plausible link
between the environment and alterations in gene expression that might lead to
disease phenotypes. An increasing body of evidence from animal studies supports
the role of environmental epigenetics in disease susceptibility. Furthermore,
recent studies have demonstrated for the first time that heritableenvironmentally induced epigenetic modifications underlie reversible
transgenerational alterations in phenotype. Methods are now becoming available
to investigate the relevance of these phenomena to human disease.
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