Figure 1.

Epigenetic toxicants lead to the phenotypic transformation of normal cells. People exposed (by inhalation, food or water ingestion, and skin contact) to certain pollutants suffer potential tissue injury in the lung, mammary gland, liver, pancreas, skin, colon, ovary, and hematological tissue among other target organs. It is well known that acute or chronic exposures to toxicants are associated with malignant cell transformation and, thus, pollution-related diseases, including cancer. Aberrant genetic modifications (DNA methylation, histone modifications, and ncRNAs can transform cells and disturb the expression of genes involved in homeostasis maintenance. Recently much attention has been given to ncRNAs with their role in pathophysiological conditions and signaling pathways such as oncogenesis, cell survival, altered apoptosis, and cell adhesion. Thus, ncRNAs (miRNA, lncRNA) are vital mediator molecules. Moreover, other important regulators, such as ncRNA-associated proteins forming multi-component complexes on specific loci at specific time points that conform complex epigenetic signatures, are also crucial during the cell transformation process. Studying those epigenetic signatures may improve the understanding of the biology of different pollution-related cancer types.