ADVANCED TISSUE ENGINEERING FOR RESEARCH APPLICATIONS = ATERA
Commercialized human tissue models are used by industry for both in-house screening and regulatory testing purposes. In the EU, the Cosmetics Regulations prohibits both animal testing of cosmetic products as well as marketing of cosmetics that have been tested on animals. This has led to the implementation of tissue model-based methods in regulatory guidelines. Recently also other industry sectors are starting to apply non-animal testing regulations.
Today only human skin model-based tests are listed in these guidelines: i.e. for skin corrosion testing and for skin irritation testing.
To comply with regulations, many new non-animal test methods will need to be developed for allergy, genotoxicity, phototoxicity as well as eye irritation testing, amongst others.
The ATERA – Reconstructed Human Epidermis (RHE) consists of normal human-derived keratinocytes cultured for 17 days at the air-liquid interface, resulting in a multilayered epidermal equivalent in vitro that is histological similar to the human epidermis. The ATERA – RHE is characterized by a high barrier function and metabolic activity and can be employed for safety and efficacy testing. To ensure global availability, models are transported on an agarose based solidified medium together with ATERA – growth and maintenance medium.