It’s a Win-Win: Irritection Assays Reduce Animal Testing And Save YouTime And Money.
We’re seeing a huge increase in the use of in vitro methods in many areas of industry, which can also mean huge savings in time and costs for companies—including pharmaceutical, cosmetic, personal care products, home care, medical device, biotech, and even veterinarian.
On March 11, 2009, a ban on animal testing of cosmetic ingredients and formulations was enacted in the European Union as part of the Cosmetics Directive. This directive regulates the cosmetic industry in the EU. As well, a sales ban of cosmetic products and ingredients tested on animals started in July in the EU. It stands to reason that more countries will soon follow suit.
Well, in vitro methods make the most sense as a viable alternative to in vivo methods. And that’s good news. If you can get comparable results from in vitro testing, and save time and money, why not take a closer look?
In vitro testing offers reproducibility and consistency of testing results between lots of tested products. Many examples of variability have been noted when animals were used in testing. With the use of in vitro ocular and dermal models, more consistent and reproducible results can now be attained.
Celsis has partnered with InVitro International to offer our customers an in vitro alternative to the Draize test for Ocular and Dermal Irritation testing in rabbits. The Irritection Assay System is a standardized and quantifiable alternative model that detects and predicts the ocular and/or dermal irritation potential of raw materials or compounds.
For ocular testing, we know that corneal opacity is caused by disruption or misalignment of corneal proteins. Ocular Irritection mimics these protein changes when a proprietary protein solution is placed into the wells of a Petri dish that mimic the proteins in the eye. A membrane disk is placed upon the protein layer in the well. Different volumes or dilutions are placed on the membrane and allowed to incubate for 24 hours. After the incubation period, the membrane is observed for deterioration and removed. The remaining material in each well is mixed and an aliquot is tested for the degree of turbidity against a standard curve through optical density. Comparison of the optical density scores allows for the calculation of an Irritancy Score.
Dermal irritation works much the same way as Ocular Irritection, by causing alterations of the skin structure including the keratin, collagen and other dermal proteins.
In vitro assays are developed to reduce, refine, and replace testing with live animals. So Celsis asks, why not replace animal tests (since it’s already a directive in EU countries) with in vitro methods? Change might be hard, but in this instance, change is inevitable. It doesn’t have to be as hard as you think; Celsis Analytical Services can also assist you with method development or methods transfer. It can mean cha-ching change too. And there’s nothing hard—or harmful—about that.
Call or email our Analytical Services division for more information on how we can help you start using in vitro testing to replace some of your animal testing. +1 732 346 5100 (New Jersey) or +1 314 487 6776 (St. Louis) or LABinfo@celsis.com.
