Use of a standardized reconstructed epidermis kit to assess in vitro the tolerance and the efficacy of cosmetics.

The development and validation of alternative methods to animal testing is one of the major priorities for the cosmetic industry. These methods must be reproducible and predictive of the effect of cosmetics during normal use by the consumer. Among alternative methods recently proposed, those using reconstructed human epidermis kits are the most promising approach for this purpose, as these models mimic the site of product application, allow topical application and the assessment of some clinical reactions.

The ECVAM international validation study on in vitro tests for acute skin irritation: report on the validity of the EPISKIN and EpiDerm assays and on the Skin Integrity Function Test.

ECVAM sponsored a formal validation study on three in vitro tests for skin irritation, of which two employ reconstituted human epidermis models (EPISKIN, EpiDerm), and one, the skin integrity function test (SIFT), employs ex vivo mouse skin. The goal of the study was to assess whether the in vitro tests would correctly predict in vivo classifications according to the EU classification scheme, "R38" and "no label" (i.e.

The in vitro skin irritation of chemicals: optimisation of the EPISKIN prediction model within the framework of the ECVAM validation process.

In view of the increasing need to identify non-animal tests able to predict acute skin irritation of chemicals, the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) focused on the evaluation of appropriate in vitro models. In vitro tests should be capable of discriminating between irritant (I) chemicals (EU risk: R38) and non-irritant (NI) chemicals (EU risk: "no classification"). Since major in vivo skin irritation assays rely on visual scoring, it is still a challenge to correlate in vivo clinical signs with in vitro biochemical measurements.

The use of reconstructed human epidermis EPISKIN in the assessment of local tolerance of cosmetics and chemicals.

Models of reconstructed human skin provide useful tools for both basic research and evaluation of the safety and efficacy of dermato-cosmetological products. They can provide alternative models to replace human and animal experiments. However, their use requires confidence in their reproducibility and similarity of the results obtained as compared to in vivo experiments.

Iron chelation can modulate UVA-induced lipid peroxidation and ferritin expression in human reconstructed epidermis.

Background/purpose: As ferritin has been identified as an important factor in antioxidant defense in cultured human skin cells, we evaluated UVA-induced lipid hydroperoxides (LPO) production and ferritin expression in reconstructed human epidermis in vitro.

Results: Ferritin is regularly present in the basal layer of unirradiated epidermis both in the human skin in vivo and in the reconstructed human epidermis in vitro. Following acute UVA exposure, ferritin expression increased in basal epidermal cells in both models.