Molecular biomarkers to assess health risks due to environmental contaminants exposure.

Biomarkers, or bioindicators, are metric tools that, when compared with reference values, allow specialists to perform risk assessments and provide objective information to decision makers to design effective strategies to solve health or environmental problems by efficiently using the resources assigned. Health risk assessment is a multidisciplinary exercise, and molecular biology is a discipline that greatly contributes to these evaluations because the genome, transcriptome, proteome and metabolome could be affected by xenobiotics causing measurable changes that might be useful biomarkers. Such changes may greatly depend on individual genetic background; therefore, the polymorphic distribution of exposed populations becomes an essential feature for adequate data interpretation. The aim of this paper is to offer an up-to-date review of the role of different molecular biomarkers in health risk assessments.