Asthma discordance in twins is linked to epigenetic modifications of T cells.

ABSTRACT: T cells mediate the inflammatory responses observed in asthma among genetically susceptible individuals and have been suspected to be prone to epigenetic regulation. However, these relationships are not well established from past clinical studies that have had limited capacity to control for the effects of variable genetic predisposition and early environmental exposures. Relying on a cohort of monozygotic twins discordant for asthma we sought to determine if epigenetic modifications in T cells were associated with current asthma and explored whether such modifications were associated with second hand smoke exposures. Our study was conducted in a monozygotic twin cohort of adult twin pairs (n = 21) all discordant for asthma. Regulatory T cell (Treg) and effector T cell (Teff) subsets were

SUBMITTER: Runyon RS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3511472 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature