Why epigenetics is (not) a biosocial science and why that matters

Abstract

Epigenetic modifications offer compelling evidence of the environmental etiology of complex diseases. Social and biographical conditions, as well as material exposures, all modulate our biology with consequences for risk predispositions and health conditions. Elucidating these complex biosocial loops is one of the main challenges animating epigenetics. Yet, research on the development of epigenetic biomarkers often pulls in a direction that departs from a view of biological determinants of health embedded in their social and material environment. Taking the example of the epigenetics of cardiovascular diseases, this paper illustrates how common understandings of epigenetic biomarkers strongly lean toward considering them as mere targets for molecular intervention, rather than as correlates of a complex biological and social patterning of disease. This reductionism about biosocial dynamics of disease, we argue, hampers the pursuit of the goals epigenetics has given itself (in cardiology and beyond). If epigenetic mechanisms point to the deep socio-environmental embeddedness of our health, we conclude, future designs and methods of this research may require an improved methodological consideration of a biosocial perspective.

Epigenetics of Early Cardiometabolic Disease: Mechanisms and Precision Medicine

“…[14][15][16][17][18] In recent years, epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation (DNAm), have emerged as potential mechanisms linking social components to cardiovascular health. 19,20 Some investigators have focused on one of those Social determinants of health; however, it is essential to recognize that these SDH are interconnected and can have a cascading effect on health outcomes. Therefore, addressing these factors requires a comprehensive approach considering the multiple ways social determinants of health interacts.…”