Archive
US EPA Commits to Dramatically Reduce Animal Testing
September 13, 2019The US EPA has committed to dramatically reducing animal testing with a commitment for total elimination by the year 2035. IIVS is proud to have played a part in the move to reduce animal testing, starting with the successful development, and acceptance, of the non-animal eye-irritation defined approach, which was developed by an industry and regulatory consortium led by IIVS' CEO Rodger D. Curren, Ph.D. IIVS looks forward to continuing its collaboration with stakeholders to help the agency achieve its goals. Read the...
Strategies for Eye Irritation Testing
September 17, 2018Determination of ocular irritation potential is a key toxicological endpoint required to support chemical and raw material characterization and industrial hygiene, to guide product development, and to achieve final product safety standards. IIVS possesses extensive experience with numerous test methods and testing strategies for commercial, industrial and regulatory applications. From standard regulatory hazard assessments to providing information on the degree of ocular irritation, to discriminating among extremely mild eye area products, IIVS’ Study Directors take the time to understand your...
Webinar: How GLPs Enhance the Quality of Regulated and Non-Regulated Toxicology
October 18, 2016This one-hour webinar, led by IIVS Director of Quality and Compliance, introduces some of the concepts of Good Laboratory Practices (GLPs) designed to promote study and data integrity within an in vitro toxicology framework. Applying these concepts within your own laboratory should aid in production of robust, repeatable studies. View Slides...
Ocular Irritection (OECD 496)
August 24, 2016The Ocular Irritection Assay is an in chemico eye irritation assay that detects, ranks, and predicts the corneal irritation potential of a test material. The assay assesses changes to the reagent solution (containing proteins, glycoproteins, lipids), which mimics the denaturation and disruption that occurs in corneal proteins in vivo.The test article is applied to a membrane disc that controls the delivery to the reagent solution. The changes in the protein structure are measured by optical density readings in the reagent...
Short Time Exposure (STE, OECD 491)
August 24, 2016The Short Time Exposure (STE) assay, developed by Kao Corporation (Japan), is an in vitro assay used to assess acute eye irritation potential as an alternative to the traditional in vivo Draize test. The test method evaluates the cytotoxicity induced by a series of test chemical dilutions in a monolayer of rabbit corneal fibroblasts (Statens Seruminstitut Rabbit Cornea – SIRC) after a single five-minute exposure. Two prediction models were initially developed for the STE assay — one categorizes the test material as...
Bovine Corneal Opacity and Permeability (BCOP, OECD 437) with Optional Histology
August 24, 2016The BCOP (Bovine Corneal Opacity and Permeability) assay is an in vitro eye irritation test method developed by Gautheron et al. (1992), which uses living bovine corneal tissue, obtained as a by-product from abattoirs, to evaluate the potential ocular irritancy of a test article. Types of injury caused by exposure to the test article are quantitatively measured by changes in opacity and permeability to fluorescein. The BCOP assay allows for the investigation of the mechanism of the damage caused. Corneal opacity...
Eye Irritation Time-to-Toxicity Test using Reconstructed Human Corneal Epithelium (RhCE) Models
August 24, 2016The ocular irritation potential of formulations, products, ingredients, and chemicals can be evaluated using in vitro reconstructed human corneal epithelium (RhCE) models, such as the EpiOcular™ (MatTek Corp.) and SkinEthic HCE (EPISKIN) organotypic 3-D tissue constructs. Whether evaluating ultra-mild cosmetics and personal care products, or rank ordering the irritation potential of candidate formulations and ingredients, we can provide custom Ocular Screening protocols to best meet your testing goals. The Ocular Screening protocols use a time-to-toxicity procedure to determine the test material...
Next Generation Tobacco Products
August 24, 2016IIVS has a long-standing history of working with various industries to help establish or utilize in vitro models for the prediction of risk and the assessment of products under development. With the Food and Drug Administration extending its authority to all tobacco products (including e-cigarettes, cigars, and hookah) the tobacco industry is faced with the task of assessing product safety for product development and regulatory submission. Further, the manufacture of tobacco products may entail risk to workers that come in...
Cosmetics & Personal Care
August 24, 2016European legislation and US research activities towards ‘21st century toxicology’ are setting the standards for animal-free toxicological assessments and the cosmetics industry has been the first to feel the effects. As per EU Regulation 1223/2009, animal testing of cosmetic ingredients and finished products is currently banned in the EU, as is the marketing of finished cosmetic products and the ingredients contained therein which were tested on animals for cosmetic safety assessment purposes. These bans hold irrespective of the availability of validated...
Pharmaceutical
August 16, 2016Pharmaceutical companies can use in vitro testing for assessing worker safety. Pharmaceutical intermediates should be evaluated to determine the primary hazards associated with them so that those involved in the manufacturing process can take necessary precautions to avoid hazardous exposures. Pharmaceutical compounds can vary widely in their physical forms, such as powders, liquids, and creams. Many in vitro assays such as those using 3-dimensional tissue constructs, and the Bovine Corneal Opacity and Permeability (BCOP) Assay, are suitable for testing different test...