A toxicologist guide to the diagnostic interpretation of hepatic biochemical parameters

Assessing liver damage in basic toxicology research and in preclinical toxicity testing is usually evaluated by serum biochemical parameters prior to confirmation by histopathology. With the advent of newer methods such as genomics and proteomics, there is increased enthusiasm to generate "novel" predictive markers to detect liver pathology even before the alterations in clinical and histopathology parameters occur. However, serum biochemical parameters (clinical pathology) when employed accurately, can provide important and useful information in assessing not only the extent and severity of liver damage, but also the type of liver damage (membrane injury versus cholestasis and hepatic function). In order to accurately detect hepatobiliary pathologies, it is important to have a basic understanding of liver associated clinical pathology parameters with reference to their exact location, serum half-lives, tissue concentration gradient and species differences. Such understanding as discussed in this article will enable a toxicologist to identify commonly encountered toxic hepatic lesions such as necrosis, cholestasis and compromised liver function by hepatic-associated clinical pathology parameters. In addition, toxicologists will have a better grasp to effectively communicate their clinical pathology findings and interpretations to the target audiences.