In Vitro Skin Irritation and Corrosivity Studies on Organosilicon Compounds

Abstract

AbstractThere is a growing impetus to the development of alternatives to animal testing for humane, scientific and economic reasons. This study describes recent experiments in this area employing in vitro models to assess skin irritation and skin corrosion for organosilicon compounds. Two commercially available in vitro assays (Skin2 1350 and CORROSITEX) were assessed using a range of 10 siloxane polymers and silanes to evaluate their ability to predict the skin corrosivity potential of these materials. Subsequent follow-up testing with the Skin21350 Skin irritation protocol was done on any materials found to be noncorrosive.The Skin21350 model was generally applicable for the in vitro assessment of skin irritancy and skin corrosivity of liquid silicone polymers and other materials, although some effort will be required to overcome the problems of working with awkward test materials (volatile, low surface tension materials) and to reduce the variability observed in the study of these materials. The correl...