Global dna methylation in obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases and the influence of environmental factors

As the prevalence of obesity and related diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes is increasing worldwide, different strategies and novel approaches are being investigated to manage these pathological conditions. In this context, dynamic changes in DNA as a consequence of environmental interactions have gained interest in understanding these diseases. Indeed, several studies have demonstrated that the epigenome is affected by external factors, such as diet, physical activity, stress, or exposure to chemical carcinogens. Global methylation status is commonly used as a surrogate measure of overall methylation changes. Actually, aberrations in DNA methylation are often related to disease. In this sense, global DNA methylation pattern changes, measured in LINE-1 and Alu sequences, have been associated to body weight regulation and the onset of obesity, cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes, and could be used as possible diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. In relation to cardiovascular diseases, LINE-1 is the principal sequence that trends to hyper or hypomethylation depending on the tissue analysed. In type 2 diabetes, changes in LINE-1 methylation levels have been reported in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Focusing on obesity, several studies have reported changes in the methylation status of both, LINE-1 and Alu sequences. For the near future, the principal challenges in nutriepigenetics are the large number of variables, intermediate markers and measurements to be considered, as well as the dynamic nature of nutrients and the limited outcome information.