Epigenetics in cardiac development and human induced pluripotent stem cells

Epigenetic events are crucial in the regulation of the complex process of cardiac development, enabling the temporal and spatial orchestration of all steps necessary for specification, differentiation, and maturation of various cell types of the heart. DNA methylation, histone modifications, and noncoding RNAs all work in concert to shape chromatin structure and modify gene accessibility and transcription as needed. In this chapter, we give insights into how precisely these mechanisms regulate cardiac development and highlight specific examples retrieved from mammalian and nonmammalian model organisms. We also detail how the very same principles are exploited in a reverse process to reprogram differentiated and mature human cells backward to a pluripotent state as is been done in the creation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) for basic and translational applications.