The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Carl Borrebaeck

Carl Borrebaeck

Professor

Carl Borrebaeck

Safe cosmetics without animal testing? Contributions of the EU Project Sens-it-iv

Author

  • Hans Ulrich Weltzien
  • Emanuela Corsini
  • Sue Gibbs
  • Malin Lindstedt
  • Carl Borrebaeck
  • Petra Budde
  • Peter Schulz-Knappe
  • Hermann-Josef Thierse
  • Stefan F. Martin
  • Erwin L. Roggen

Summary, in English

The 7th Ammendment to the Cosmetics Directive of the European Commission (Directive 76/768/EEC2) bans the marketing of cosmetics containing animal-tested ingredients since March 2009. Excepted are only tests for repeated dose toxicity, for which the animal ban will come into effect by 2013. One major concern for cosmetics, i.e. the risk of containing skin (contact) sensitizers, has in the past been addressed almost exclusively by animal testing. It is this problem attracting the central interest of the integrated research project Sens-it-iv (Novel Testing Strategies for in vitro Assessment of Allergens, http://www.sens-it-iv.eu ), funded by the EC within framework 6 since October 2005. Here, the 28 Sens-it-iv partners from 10 European States present the 5 most promising types of in vitro assays selected for further refinement. These are: (1) a human epidermal equivalent (EE) model to rank contact allergens according to their sensitizing potency, (2) identification of contact sensitizers, including pro-haptens, through intracellular production of IL-18 by the human keratinocyte cell line NCTC 2544, (3) determination of activation markers such as CD86, CD54 and most prominently CXCL8 (IL-8) on/in dendritic cell lines, (4) contact sensitizer-specific migration of MUTZ Langerhans cells towards the chemokine CXCL12, and (5) the allergen-specific activation and proliferation of na < ve human T cells. Ongoing genomic and proteomic experiments are in the process of identifying larger sensitizer-specific biological marker signatures to be integrated into the above assays. We hope to supply the European control agencies with a basis for further validation of in vitro assays by the end of 2010.

Department/s

  • Department of Immunotechnology

Publishing year

2009

Language

English

Pages

41-48

Publication/Series

Journal für Verbraucherschütz und Lebensmittelsicherheit

Volume

4

Issue

suppl. 2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Birkhäuser Verlag

Topic

  • Immunology in the medical area

Keywords

  • Allergy
  • Contact
  • Sensitizer
  • In vitro
  • Alternative
  • Animal
  • Cosmetic

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1661-5867