Advances in the epigenetics of fibroblast biology and fibrotic diseases

Abstract

Fibroblasts have a central role in tissue fibrosis and fibrotic diseases. Fibroblast activation is regulated by several mechanisms including epigenetic modifications; histone modifications, DNA methylation and non-coding RNAs. Although research has significantly contributed to our basic understanding of fibrotic diseases over the last decade, cooperative activity of epigenetic mechanisms demonstrates the complexity of fibrogenesis. This review will summarise the latest epigenetic advances in fibroproliferative diseases. Current studies investigating biological implications of epigenetic modifiers, inhibitors of DNA methylation/histone modifying enzymes are promising. Given that ncRNA-based or CRISPR-based epigenetic-editing have shown therapeutic potential in the preclinical models; we consider epigenetic mechanisms represent a potential tool with clinical utility.