You are here:
Use of Gene Expression Changes in Blood to Elucidate Mechanistic Indicators of Childhood Asthma (MICA)
Citation:
EDWARDS, S. W., D. REIF, B. HEIDENFELDER, E. E. HUDGENS, L. M. NEAS, E. A. COHEN-HUBAL, AND J. GALLAGHER. Use of Gene Expression Changes in Blood to Elucidate Mechanistic Indicators of Childhood Asthma (MICA). Presented at SOT 48th Annual Meeting & ToxExpo, Baltimore, MD, March 15 - 19, 2009.
Impact/Purpose:
abstract for presentation
Description:
Risk assessment increasingly relies more heavily on mode of action, thus the identification of human bioindicators of disease becomes all the more important. Genomic methods represent a tool for both mode of action determination and bioindicator identification. The Mechanistic Indicators of Childhood Asthma (MICA) Study incorporates genomics data from rodents and humans, together with phenotypic measurements, to predict the key events associated with asthma severity or symptomology and to identify human bioindicators for these key events. Gene expression was measured in blood collected from children participating in a case/control asthma study in Detroit. Transcriptional changes from blood were related to common environmental and clinical indicators to identify informative bioindicators to distinguish asthmatics with different etiologies. A parallel study using allergen sensitized Brown Norway rats included expression data from both blood and lung thereby establishing the relationship between transcriptional changes in the blood and corresponding changes in the target tissue. Systems approaches such as this are critical to realizing the National Research Council’s 2007 vision of “Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century”. [This abstract does not reflect EPA policy.]