The modulation of liver methylome in liver diseases

Abstract

The importance of 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) in the biology of non-cancerous human liver diseases, particularly nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), was recently described for the first time by our group [2]. We observed that nonnuclear-5-hmC, which is probably located in mitochondria, is lower in NAFLD as compared with controls. Therefore, 5-hmC may be involved in the modulation of the mitochondrial DNA methylome and gene expression, in particular components of the oxidative phosphorylation-chain, a finding that could explain much of the changes that occur during NAFLD disease progression, including fibrogenesis