A perspective on molecular and cellular biology-based developmental toxicology biomarkers

Abstract

The process of development is intricate and couple-dependent phenomenon. Accordingly, the study of molecular and cellular biology-based developmental toxicology biomarkers increasingly is becoming an important part of risk assessment and management of chemicals for detection of health outcomes and/or biological endpoint like cytotoxicity, cell death, etc. Since, the evolution of developmental toxicology field a number of tools/markers have been developed or addressed to deal with developmental outcomes, which can ultimately be used for the development of adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) of developmental toxicants. As a result, this paper provides an overview of the current state of developmental toxicology biomarkers and describes the strategies used in the selection and evaluation of such biomarkers in the context of developmental toxicity studies. Here, we discuss about the biological markers that are directly linked to developmental toxicity with respect to future revolutionary perspectives. Additionally, this chapter will address different associated outcomes of developmental exposure by intriguing advance techniques. The discussion focuses on the challenges associated with the development of biomarkers for developmental toxicity and highlights some of the recent advances in this area. Finally, the chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the future prospects for the use of molecular and cellular biology-based developmental toxicity biomarkers. Hope the present state of the art will provide a succinct summary of recent developments of biomarkers of developmental toxicology.