Fatal lung vascular disease caused by silencing of genes

Epigenetic gene silencing may hold key to pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a deadly lung vascular disease, suggest a new American research. PAH, a syndrome characterized by gradual blockage of blood vessels in the lungs, has been connected to genetic causes in a small percentage of patients.

But University of Chicago researchers have now found that a form of epigenetics - the alteration of gene expression - causes the disease in an animal model and could donate to the disease in humans.The finding, appearing in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, opens a promising avenue for examine into the origins of vascular disorder.

Jalees Rehman, Assistant Professor of Medicine and an author of the paper, said: "This introduces a new concept: DNA methylation, a form of epigenetics, may play a role in pulmonary major hypertension."We think this is going to be a big part of cardiovascular study in the next decade to come."PAH is known to run in families and has been traced to a change in the BMPR2 gene, but only 1 in 4 people with that alteration develop the disease.

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