The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing is an academic center affiliated with the Division of Toxicological Sciences in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

 

Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Research Grants 1983-1984

Irritancy Testing with Stratified Epidermal Cell Culture

Fritzell Vaughn, PhD
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Problem

The overall objective of this proposal is to investigate the feasibility of employing a novel technique: in vitro cultivation of epidermal cells. These techniques are designed to screen chemical agents for toxicity and to ascertain if there is a correlation with current in vitro irritancy tests as approved by regulatory agencies.

Essentially, the method involves the growth and maintenance of epidermal cells on the surface of the growth medium so that the surface of the culture can be exposed to a gaseous phase while receiving nutrients from the liquid phase below. This results in a stratification of cells which is similar to in situ epidermal organization.

Selected chemical agents can then be applied to the surface of such cultures in a manner similar to the application in vivo for irritancy assays. Parameters will be chosen that will allow a quantitative evaluation of the effects of exposure to these chemicals.

The chemicals chosen will be those whose irritancy has been determined by animal and human skin or eye testing and which have a high degree of correlation of irritancy between species.

Impact of the Research

The proposal will attempt to develop an in vitro test system which will result in a reduction of the number of whole animal tests required for screening chemicals which are potentially harmful to humans.