The identification of putative circulating miRNA biomarkers of Thioacetamide-induced hepatotoxicity.

miRNA microarray profiling of RNA extracted from the plasma of rats treated with Thioacetamide revealed that a subset of miRNAs were differentially expressed following treatment. These miRNAs appeared to mediate pathways involved in hepatic fibrosis and stellate cell activation, suggesting that they might function as predictive biomarkers following compound-induced hepatotoxicity. The changes correlated well with increases in ALT levels, which are the current gold standard method for determining the extent of liver injury. Furthermore, it is hypothesised that particular aetiologies of liver damage might cause differing expression profiles of miRNAs, thus certain miRNAs could be implemented in a panel-type expression study to distinguish between different types of hepatic injury.