Challenges and limitations of gene expression profiling in mechanistic and predictive toxicology.
RNA and protein expression profiling technologies have revolutionized how toxicologists can study the molecular basis of adverse effects of chemicals and drugs. It is expected that these new technologies will afford efficient and high-throughput means to delineate mechanisms of action and predict toxicity of unknown agents. To reach these goals, a more thorough understanding of the constraints of the methodology is needed to design genome-scale studies and to interpret the vast amount of data collected. This paper addresses some of the limitations and uncertainties of gene expression profiling in mechanistic and predictive toxicology with respect to the expectations of toxicogenomics. The challenges associated with interpreting information from large-scale gene expression experiments in vivo is also discussed.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, National Food Safety and Toxicology Center, Institute of Environmental Toxicology, Michigan State University, 223 Biochemistry Building, Wilson Road, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA.
M R
MR
Fielden
T R
TR
Zacharewski
D000818:Animals; D005544:Forecasting / Q000379:methods; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000187:drug effects*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015894:Genome, Human; D006801:Humans; D010597:Pharmacogenetics; D014116:Toxicology / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D015262:Xenobiotics / Q000633:toxicity*
D015262:Xenobiotics