Biomarkers and Mechanistic Approaches in Environmental Epidemiology

Optimal Exposure Biomarkers for Nonpersistent Chemicals in Environmental Epidemiology

We discuss considerations that are essential when evaluating exposure to nonpersistent, semivolatile environmental chemicals such as phthalates and phenols (e.g., bisphenol A). A biomarker should be chosen to best represent usual personal exposures and not recent, adventitious, or extraneous exposures. Biomarkers should be selected to minimize contamination arising from collection, sampling, or...

Environmental epidemiology: An introduction

Innovative Approaches in Environmental Medicine: Redox/Detoxification Biomarkers in Environmental Intolerances

1 Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Via L. Borsari 46, 44121 Ferrara, Italy 2 Department of Food and Nutrition, Kyung Hee University, 1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea 3 Department of Biochemical, Physiological and Nutritional Sciences, Policlinico Universitario, University of Messina, 98122 Messina, Italy 4 Skin Biology, The Estee...

Biomarkers in epidemiology.

A biomarker is a measurable event occurring in a biological system, such as the human body. In environmental epidemiology, a biomarker represents a subclinical and reversible change; it is not a diagnostic test, but an indicator that an early change has occurred that could later lead to clinical disease. Although some biomarkers may belong to more than one class, they are often separated into b...

Biomarkers in nutritional epidemiology.

OBJECTIVE To illustrate biomarkers of diet that can be used to validate estimates of dietary intake in the study of gene-environment interactions in complex diseases. DESIGN Prospective cohort studies, studies of biomarkers where diet is carefully controlled. SETTING Free-living individuals, volunteers in metabolic suites. SUBJECTS Male and female human volunteers. RESULTS Recent studie...