Identification of Novel Liver-Specific mRNAs in Plasma for Biomarkers of Drug-Induced Liver Injury and Quantitative Evaluation in Rats Treated With Various Hepatotoxic Compounds

Hundreds of toxicological biomarkers in the circulation are being used to identify the target organ of drug toxicity. However, most of these biomarkers do not display sufficient organ or tissue specificity. For instance, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), which is the most frequently used biomarker to detect liver damage, can also be elevated in patients with acute myocardial infarction (Giesen et al., 1989), obesity (Ruhl and Everhart, 2003), skeletal muscle disease (Korones et al., 2001), and burns (Halkes et al., 2002). These reports underline the low specificity of ALT as a biomarker for liver injury. in order to support ALT, other protein-based biomarkers have been developed and are recommended to be used in combination with ALT. For example, serum F protein, arginase i, and α-glutathione s-transferase ( α-GsT), which are all measured by EL isA, ha ve been shown to be useful hepatotoxic biomarkers (