Non-animal approaches in skin toxicology

摘要

For those of us who are older toxicologists, the great majority of us began our careers at a time when in vitro toxicology seemed to represent something that could only be achieved in a very distant future, almost a piece of science fiction. However, stimulated by ethical and political pressure, in particular in relation to cosmetics (e.g. European Cosmetics Directive/Regulation), there is now a greater urgency to deliver practical solutions in this area of science in a shorter time frame and with the hope, or even expectation, that these achievements will be more than just a fiction. For many of us, it also may have seemed that toxicology endpoints which we viewed as the most simple, such as skin and eye irritation, ought indeed to be capable of being replaced in a relatively short time frame. To some extent, this has occurred, although the quality of the methods in terms of human safety assessment still remains unclear (as was also true of the in vivo methods). Nevertheless, success in this area has meant that focus has now turned to the endpoint of skin sensitisation. Great efforts have been made on this topic in terms of the identification of significant skin sensitisation hazard.