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Identification of Skin Irritants and Allergens by In Vivo and In Vitro Methods

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Abstract

Skin is prone to developing allergic, irritant, and urticarial reactions in response to contact with a number of drugs and chemicals on a daily basis. Hence, a variety of assays (in vivo and in vitro) have been developed to determine absorption through the skin and their ability to cause skin reactions.

Absorption of substances through skin is influenced by a number of factors such as concentration/pH of the chemical at the skin surface, type of vehicle, integrity of the skin, subject’s age, and the surface area exposed.

In vivo percutaneous absorption assays have been conducted in a number of animal models and involve the measurement of radiolabeled chemicals containing 14C or 3H in urine and/or feces after applying a known quantity of the chemical on the skin. In vitro percutaneous penetration assays are conducted in excised human or animal skin using radioactively tagged chemicals.

Understanding the structure and biological activity of any agent (quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR)) helps in determining the potential allergenicity of chemicals with similar structures.

A great deal of advancement has taken place with regard to testing the irritant potential of a substance, and many new in vitro skin models have been developed for the same.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Rasika Reddy

  2. Department of Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Howard I. Maibach

  3. Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Viswanath Reddy Belum & Geetanjali Sethi

  4. Molecular and Cellular Toxicology (MS-DDT-EMT), Early, Genetic and Molecular Toxicology, Toxicology, Merck Serono R&D, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

    Philip Hewitt

  5. UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, USA

    Rasika Reddy

Authors
  1. Rasika Reddy
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  2. Howard I. Maibach
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  3. Viswanath Reddy Belum
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  4. Geetanjali Sethi
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  5. Philip Hewitt
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rasika Reddy .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, Environmental Medicine and Health Theory, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany

    Swen Malte John

  2. National Allergy Research Centre, Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Herlev-Gentofte University Hospital, Hellerup, Hellerup, Denmark

    Jeanne Duus Johansen

  3. Department of Dermatology and Allergology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Thomas Rustemeyer

  4. Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Jena, Jena, Germany

    Peter Elsner

  5. Department of Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Howard I. Maibach

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Reddy, R., Maibach, H.I., Belum, V.R., Sethi, G., Hewitt, P. (2020). Identification of Skin Irritants and Allergens by In Vivo and In Vitro Methods. In: John, S., Johansen, J., Rustemeyer, T., Elsner, P., Maibach, H. (eds) Kanerva’s Occupational Dermatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68617-2_104

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68617-2_104

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