Pulmonary disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension are the leading cause of deaths. More importantly, lung diseases are on the rise and environmental factors induced epigenetic modifications are major players on this increased prevalence. It has been reported that dysregulation of genes involved in epigenetic regulation such as the histone deacetylase (HDACs) and histone acetyltransferase (HATs) play important role in lung health and pulmonary disease pathogenesis. Inflammation is an essential component of respiratory diseases. Injury and inflammation trigger release of extracellular vesicles that can act as epigenetic modifiers through transfer of epigenetic regulators such as microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), proteins and lipids, from one cell to another. The immune dysregulations caused by the cargo contents are important contributors of respiratory disease pathogenesis. N6 methylation of RNA is also emerging to be a critical mechanism of epigenetic alteration and upregulation of immune responses to environmental stressors. Epigenetic changes such as DNA methylation are stable and often long term and cause onset of chronic lung conditions. These epigenetic pathways are also being utilized for therapeutic intervention in several lung conditions.

慢性阻塞性肺病（COPD）、哮喘、肺纤维化和肺动脉高压等肺部疾病是导致死亡的主要原因。更重要的是，肺部疾病呈上升趋势，环境因素引起的表观遗传修饰是导致患病率增加的主要原因。据报道，组蛋白脱乙酰酶（HDAC）和组蛋白乙酰转移酶（HAT）等表观遗传调控基因的失调在肺部健康和肺部疾病发病机制中发挥着重要作用。炎症是呼吸系统疾病的重要组成部分。损伤和炎症会触发细胞外囊泡的释放，这些囊泡可以通过将表观遗传调节因子（如 microRNA (miRNA)、长非编码 RNA (lncRNA)、蛋白质和脂质）从一个细胞转移到另一个细胞来充当表观遗传修饰剂。货物内容物引起的免疫失调是呼吸道疾病发病机制的重要因素。RNA 的N6甲基化也逐渐成为表观遗传改变和上调环境应激免疫反应的关键机制。DNA 甲基化等表观遗传变化是稳定的，而且往往是长期的，会导致慢性肺部疾病的发作。这些表观遗传途径也被用于多种肺部疾病的治疗干预。