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 2007-2008

Microfluidic systems for reducing animal use in high throughput toxicity assays

Glenn M. Walker, PhD
North Carolina State University

The system developed in this project will address the growing need for alternative animal models in toxicological studies. To meet this need we propose to develop an in vitro microfluidic screening system, capable of simultaneously testing many compounds, that will minimize or eliminate animal use in irritant testing. A novel polymer will be used to construct the microfluidic devices so that a wide range of test compounds, including organics, can be used for irritant screening. Cultures of human epidermal keratinocytes (HEK) will be maintained within the devices and used as the model system, thus eliminating animal use for these studies. We will validate the irritant potential of benzene and toluene, components in a wide variety of consumer products, by exposing them to HEK and assaying for the secreted pro-inflammatory markers IL-8 and TNFa. The microfluidic screening system will use one one-hundredth the volume of a traditional 96 well titer plate, thus reducing the amount of cells and reagents needed for irritant screening. The proposed microfluidic system will have wide-ranging impact in all areas of toxicology since it can be used with any cell type and with any soluble chemical compound.