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 1993-1994

Phototoxicity of Solar Irradiation of Cultured Human Keratinocytes

Lester Packer, PhD
University of California, Berkeley, California

Changes in antioxidant status reflect changes in free radical production rates and can thus be used as biomarkers of oxidative stress. In these studies, cultured human skin cells and excised human dermis and epidermis will be irradiated with simulated solar light, with samples tested for photooxidative damage as indicated by accumulation of lipid peroxidation products and protein carbonyls. Responses in the whole skin will be compared to those of the cultured cells and indices of photooxidative stress will be related to indices of photooxidative damage in order to find sensitive predictors of phototoxicity. The experiment will then be repeated in vivo.