Due to the higher cost and demanding efforts, chemicals often lack higher-tier toxicological data in practicing standard chemical registration. This project utilizes the key characteristic approach to synthesize mechanistic data for carcinogens and reproductive hazards, combining systematic literature reviews with transcriptomic information to help fill potential toxicological data gaps for chemicals. Combining the key characteristic approach and cell transcriptomic data, this project proposes the key characteristics of the cellular transcriptome for reproductive toxicants and establishes an initial workflow to assess the reproductive hazard of chemicals. The project incorporates known reproductive hazard substance nonylphenol, eight nonylphenol derivatives, and three artificial sweeteners in a case study to verify the reliability of this workflow. We acquire the transcriptomic data of the test substances within the breast cancer cell line MCF-7, perform biological pathway analysis, compare the pathway analysis results with the alerting pathways of reproductive hazard established in the first phase of this project, analyze the chemical-induced key characteristics for reproductive hazard, and then determine whether the test substance carries the potential reproductive hazards of chemicals.

Transcriptomics, key characteristics, reproductive hazard