Urinary creatine as a biochemical marker of chemical induced testicular damage.

Urinary creatine has been shown to markedly increase in rats following testicular damage caused by toxicants as diverse as cadmium, 2-methoxyethanol, 1,3-dinitrobenzene, and 2,3,5,6-tetramethylphenylene diamine. More recent findings have shown that urinary creatine is raised in mice exposed to 2-methoxyacetic acid. The most recent studies have revealed that urinary creatine and creatine in interstitial fluid in the testis are raised as early as four hours after dosing with 2-methoxyethanol. Using the testicular toxicants 2-methoxyethanol and cadmium, the authors compared urinary creatine with other markers of testicular damage, such as histopathological assessment of testis by light microscopy, testis weight and lactate dehydrogenase C4 isoenzyme, and testosterone. Urinary creatine was found to be the most sensitive indicator of testicular damage detected by histopathology after both 2-methoxyethanol and cadmium exposure. It is therefore a potentially very useful non-invasive biomarker of male reproductive dysfunction caused by chemicals.