SOT Symposium Highlight: Translatable Indicators of Testicular Toxicity: Inhibin B, MicroRNAs, and Sperm Signatures.
Testicular toxicity is an important safety endpoint in drug development and risk assessment, but reliable and translatable biomarkers for predicting injury have eluded researchers. However, this area shows great potential for improvement, with several avenues currently being pursued. This was the topic of a symposium session during the 2013 Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX, entitled "Translatable Indicators of Testicular Toxicity: Inhibin B, MicroRNAs, and Sperm Signatures." This symposium brought together stakeholders from academia, government, and industry to present the limitations and drawbacks of currently used indicators of injury and discussed the ongoing efforts in developing more predictive biomarkers of injury. The presentations highlighted the early challenges of using circulating inhibin B and microRNA levels, and sperm messenger RNA transcript abundance and DNA methylation profiles, as novel biomarkers of testicular toxicity.
* Division of Urology, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island 02903;
Edward
E
Dere
Linnea M
LM
Anderson
Michelle
M
Coulson
Barry S
BS
McIntyre
Kim
K
Boekelheide
Robert E
RE
Chapin
D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007265:Inhibins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000378:metabolism*; D013094:Spermatozoa; D013737:Testis / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism
D015415:Biomarkers; D035683:MicroRNAs; C422364:inhibin B; D007265:Inhibins
biomarkers; inhibin B; microRNA; sperm.; testicular toxicity