Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Division of Environmental Epidemiology, University Utrecht, Po Box 80178, 3508 TD, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Occup Environ Med. 2010 Feb;67(2):136-43. doi: 10.1136/oem.2008.042788. Epub 2009 Nov 20.
OMICS technologies are relatively new biomarker discovery tools that can be applied to study large sets of biological molecules. Their application in human observational studies (HOS) has become feasible in recent years due to a spectacular increase in the sensitivity, resolution and throughput of OMICS-based assays. Although, the number of OMICS techniques is ever expanding, the five most developed OMICS technologies are genotyping, transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics and metabolomics. These techniques have been applied in HOS to various extents. However, their application in occupational environmental health (OEH) research has been limited. Here, we will discuss the opportunities these new techniques provide for OEH research. In addition we will address difficulties and limitations to the interpretation of the data that is generated by OMICS technologies. To illustrate the current status of the application of OMICS in OEH research, we will provide examples of studies that used OMICS technologies to investigate human health effects of two well-known toxicants, benzene and arsenic.
组学技术是相对较新的生物标志物发现工具，可用于研究大量的生物分子。近年来，由于基于组学的检测方法的灵敏度、分辨率和通量有了显著提高，其在人类观察性研究（HOS）中的应用成为可能。尽管组学技术的数量不断增加，但最发达的五种组学技术是基因分型、转录组学、表观基因组学、蛋白质组学和代谢组学。这些技术已在 HOS 中得到了不同程度的应用。然而，它们在职业环境卫生（OEH）研究中的应用受到限制。在这里，我们将讨论这些新技术为 OEH 研究提供的机会。此外，我们还将讨论解释组学技术产生的数据所面临的困难和限制。为了说明组学在 OEH 研究中的应用现状，我们将提供使用组学技术研究两种已知有毒物质苯和砷对人类健康影响的研究示例。
