The significance of epigenetic mechanisms of physiological adaptation to hypoxia in the search for key points of influence on hypoxia-dependent pathological processes

Abstract

Epigenetics is a term in biology referring to heritable traits that do not involve changes in the underlying DNA sequence of the organism. Cancer and stem cell research have gradually focused attention on these genome modifications. The molecular basis of epigenetics involves modifications of DNA and the chromatin proteins associated with it. Recent data suggests that epigenetics plays a crucial role in the development of many processes, including physiological reactions. Increasingly, researchers are detecting links between epigenetics and a number of diseases. Epigenomic modifications are reversible chromatin rearrangements that modulate gene expression without changing DNA sequences and provide variability in the transcriptional activity of individual genes, the course of the cell cycle, DNA replication and repair, and imprinting phenomena. Despite significant progress in the identification of adaptive genomic signals that are closely related to the physiological characteristics of “hypoxia tolerance” in high-altitude populations, many questions regarding the fundamental biological processes underlying such adaptation remain unanswered. The study of the mechanisms of adaptation to hypoxia in the ontogeny process acquires special importance in the view of the potential therapeutic and preventive effect of natural environmental factors.