中文摘要：

生物活性食品成分和营养可以改变表观遗传现象,例如DNA甲基化和组蛋白修饰,因此通过对相关的关键性基因的表达修饰,可以控制其生理、病理、胚胎发育、老化和癌症形成。显然,营养和功能性食品可能可以直接抑制或者激活催化DNA甲基化的酶,或者通过组蛋白修饰作用,从而影响表观遗传表现型。从这个意义上说,食品和营养的表观遗传作用可以作为一个防止过度营养、代谢疾病和癌症的有吸引力的手段。近年来,表观遗传学已经成为广泛流行的现代文明病,如2型糖尿病、肥胖病、炎症和神经紊乱等的新兴研究领域。功能性食品或者营养成分对表现型和疾病状态的作用不仅是一个个体的问题,它可以成功地传递到后代,也就是传代遗传作用。像营养滋补品或毒性成分等主要环境因子都可能作为内分泌的干扰者,它们虽不能促进遗传突变,或改变DNA序列,但是这些因子的确可以改变表观基因组。生殖细胞的表观遗传突变可以永久地改变生命活动程序,因而可以进行表观表现型的遗传传代。不幸的是,目前我们对食品和营养的表观遗传学的了解还很有限,对其表观遗传传代机制尚不清楚。本文将就食品的功能性因子如何促进表现型传代和疾病的表观遗传学研究进行综述,同时提出一个新的假说,亦即：功能性食品和机体之间通过细胞通讯网络互作;接下来机体和生殖细胞通过细胞通讯网络互作,从而实现食品通过改变机体表观遗传表现型,机体表现型再通过改变生殖细胞DNA和组蛋白修饰进行传代。进一步的研究需要扩大可利用的资源,通过进一步弄清营养和功能性成分的表观遗传作用机制,为改善我们健康状况,避免疾病的发生提供科学依据。

英文摘要：

Bioactive components and nutrients in foods can change epigenetic phenomena such as DNA methylation and histone modification.Therefore,the expression of critical genes associated with physiological and pathological processes can control embryonic development,aging and carcinogenesis.It appears that nutrients and function foods can influence epigenetic phenotype either by directly inhibiting or activating enzymes for DNA methylation or histone modifications.In this regard,food and nutritional epigenetics has been viewed as an attractive tool to prevent overnutrition,metabolic diseases and cancers.In recent years,epigenetics has become an emerging research field with a broad range of diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus,obesity,inflammation and neurocognitive disorders.The capability of functional foods and nutrients to promote a phenotype or disease progression can not only be exposed in the individuals,but also successfully be inherited in successive generations.The majority of environmental factors such as nutrients or toxicants such as endocrine disruptors do not promote genetic mutations or alterations in DNA sequence.However,these factors do have the capability to alter the epigenome.Epimutations in the germ line that become permanently programmed can allow transmission of epigenetic transgenerational phenotypes.Unfortunately,ccurrent knowledge about bioactive food and nutritional epigenetics is limited,and the mechanism of epigenetic transgeneration is unclear.In this paper,we provide an overview of the epigenetics and how food bioactive factors can promote transgenerational phenotypes and diseases.A new hypothesis is proposed based on the interaction between functional foods and organisms or their communication networks.However,further studies are needed to expand the available resources and better understand the applications of nutrients or bioactive food components for maintaining our health and preventing diseases through modifiable epigenetic mechanisms.