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Allergic and irritant skin reactions caused by topical exposure to permanent hair dyes are a common problem. For regulatory and ethnical purposes, it is required to perform chemical safety assessment following the replacement, reduction, and refinement of animal testing (312s). Permanent hair dyes are formed by a mixture of ingredients that vary from low to extreme skin sensitizing potency and that inter-react to form unknown by-products. Because of the complex reaction, this cytotoxic mechanism has not yet been elucidated and is the subject of this study. Here, we topically exposed p-phenylenediamine (PPD), Resorcinol (RES), Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) alone or as a mixture to RhE and evaluated parameters related to skin irritation such as epidermal' viability, keratinocytes damage, barrier loss and IL-1 alpha. Our data indicates that ingredients tested alone did not lead to an increase of cytotoxic parameters related to skin irritation. However, when the mixture of PPD/H2O2/RES and PPD/H2O2 was applied to the RhE, some of the parameters such as morphological changes including the presence of apoptotic cells, barrier loss and increased IL-1 alpha release were observed. The results indicate that the mixture of ingredients used in permanent hair dyes have an irritant effect in RhE while the ingredients alone not.

This article gives information on an international ring trial of the epidermal-equivalent (EE) sensitizer potency assay.

This study describes the international ring trial of the epidermal-equivalent (EE) sensitizer potency assay. This assay does not distinguish a sensitizer from a non-sensitizer, but may classify known skin sensitizers according to their potency. It assesses the chemical concentration resulting in 50% cytotoxicity (EE-EC50) or the 2-fold increase in IL-1(IL-12x). Four laboratories received 13 coded sensitizers. Reproducible results were obtained in each laboratory. A binary prediction model, EC50 ≥ 7 mg/ml = weak to moderate sensitizer and EC50 < 7 mg/ml = strong to extreme sensitizer had an accuracy of 77%. A superior EE (EC50 and IL-12x) correlation was observed with human in vivo DSA05 data compared to LLNA-EC3 data. Human in vivo NOEL and LLNA-EC3 data correlated to a similar extent to in vitro EE data. Our results indicate that this easily transferable EE potency assay is suitable for testing chemical allergens of unknown potencies and may now be ready for further validation, providing complementary potency information to other assays already undergoing validation for assessing skin sensitization potential.

This study describes the international ring trial of the epidermal-equivalent (EE) sensitizer potency assay. This assay does not distinguish a sensitizer from a non-sensitizer, but may classify known skin sensitizers according to their potency. It assesses the chemical concentration resulting in 50% cytotoxicity (EE-EC50) or the 2-fold increase in IL-1(IL-12x). Four laboratories received 13 coded sensitizers. Reproducible results were obtained in each laboratory. A binary prediction model, EC50 ≥ 7 mg/ml = weak to moderate sensitizer and EC50 < 7 mg/ml = strong to extreme sensitizer had an accuracy of 77%. A superior EE (EC50 and IL-12x) correlation was observed with human in vivo DSA05 data compared to LLNA-EC3 data. Human in vivo NOEL and LLNA-EC3 data correlated to a similar extent to in vitro EE data. Our results indicate that this easily transferable EE potency assay is suitable for testing chemical allergens of unknown potencies and may now be ready for further validation, providing complementary potency information to other assays already undergoing validation for assessing skin sensitization potential.