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Epigenetics and Minerals: An Overview

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Handbook of Nutrition, Diet, and Epigenetics

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Abstract

Epigenetics plays a decisive role in gene regulation and is vulnerable to environmental challenges, including supply with nutritional factors, such as minerals. The observation that the function of epigenetically active enzymes requires cofactors such as minerals supports this hypothesis. Data are available that reveal direct and indirect effects of essential minerals on the methylation status of the DNA, on epigenetic modifications of histones, and on the regulation of RNA interference. As is true for most epigenetically active factors, the mineral balance mostly effects the epigenome generation during embryonic development, but changes can be induced throughout life as part of lifelong epigenome editing. It has indeed been suggested that changes induced by minerals cumulate during aging and can be passed on to the next generation. Together, this suggests the use of mineral supplementation to prevent dysplasia originating from errors in establishing the epigenome or correct epigenetic disturbances. Despite immense advances in recent years, literature on the impact of minerals on the epigenome is still scarce compared to our general knowledge in nutritional epigenetics. This chapter provides an overview over epigenetic activities of calcium, chromium, manganese, magnesium, iron, selenium, and zinc and briefly mentions data for molybdenum and mineral mixes. An association between disturbed mineral balance, epigenetics, and certain types of diseases will be addressed as well.

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Abbreviations

BDNF:

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor

HDAC:

Histone deacetylase

hTMA:

Hair tissue mineral analysis

ICP-AES:

Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Immunology, RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Aachen, Germany

    Inga Wessels

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  1. Inga Wessels
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Correspondence to Inga Wessels .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK

    Vinood B. Patel

  2. Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Research Division, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King’s College London, London, UK

    Victor R. Preedy

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Wessels, I. (2019). Epigenetics and Minerals: An Overview. In: Patel, V., Preedy, V. (eds) Handbook of Nutrition, Diet, and Epigenetics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55530-0_48

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55530-0_48

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-55530-0

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