Exploitation of Alternative Skin Models from Academia to Industry: Needs and Regulation Demands via Frontiers

1 Introduction

The utilization of alternative skin models (ASM) for testing has sparked significant attention in both academic and industrial environments. This aligns with the 3R principle, which stands for replacement, reduction, and refinement for ethical animal experimentation (Niehues et al., 2018; Sonawane et al., 2022).

In the field of dermatology, the development of ASM has become crucial (Mathes et al., 2014; Yun et al., 2018). Skin is a complex organ, and studying its biology and pathology often requires the use of animal models, which can be costly, time-consuming, react differently from human skin, and raise ethical concerns.

ASM, based on human cells, reconstructed skin, ex vivo skin, organ-on-a-chip, and computational in silico models, have emerged as a promising solution, as they are more cost-effective and sustainable, present fewer ethical considerations, and, in certain cases, show advantages compared to the corresponding animal models (Danilenko et al., 2016).