Critical Role of Gut Microbiota and Epigenetic Factors in the Pathogenesis of Behçet's Disease

Abstract

Behçet's disease (BD) is a chronic refractory multisystem autoinflammatory disease, characterized by typical clinical features of non-specific vasculitis, oral and genital ulcers, uveitis, as well as skin lesions. The exact etiopathogenesis of BD remains unknown, existing studies have indicated that genetics and environmental factors contribute to the increased development of BD. Recently, several studies have shown that external environmental factors can affect the process of epigenetic modification, and abnormalities of epigenetic factors have been confirmed to be involved in the occurrence of BD. At the same time, abnormalities of gut microbiota (GM) in the body, have also been confirmed to participate in the pathogenesis of BD by regulating the balance of Th17/Tregs. This article reviews the pathogenesis of BD and summarizes numerous clinical studies, focusing on the mechanism of GM and epigenetic factors impacting on BD, and providing new ideas for further elucidating the pathogenesis of BD.

Keywords: Behçet’s disease; DNA methylation; epigenetics; gut microbiota; histone modification; microRNA.

FIGURE 1

The possible mechanism of epigenetics factors and GM involving the pathogenesis of BD. The imbalance of GM and epigenetics abnormality may be involved in the occurrence of BD by regulating the differentiation of T cells. In addition, the abnormality of conditional pathogenic bacteria may cause inflammation by retaining bacteria in intestinal mucosa, and the abnormality of LncRNA can also cause eye and central nervous system damage in patients with BD. Abbreviation: GM: Gut microbiota, BD: Behçet’s disease, BPB: butyrate-producing bacteria, SRB: sulfate-reducing bacteria.