대체 시험법을 활용한 줄기세포 화장품의 자극성 평가

Abstract

The global cosmetic market in 2014 was estimated to be worth to about 250 billion USD and has continued to grow. In particular, stem-cell based cosmetics, which can be used to repair skin and protect it from aging, have become recently trendy. However, the questionable safety issue of commercial stem-cell cosmetics has become a hot issue. Cosmetics consumers may buy a product without any information about the safety of products whose ingredients may have less than 10 years of commercial history. For the safety verification of cosmetics and ingredients, the classification for eye irritation needs to be conducted essentially. The Bovine Corneal Opacity & Permeability test (BCOP) is recommended as a validated alternative method for eye irritation by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Thus, in this study, we evaluated the eye irritation potential of commercial stem-cell based cosmetics by the BCOP assay, Hens Egg Test on the Chorio-Allantoic Membrane (HET-CAM) assay, and Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial cell (HUVEC) test. Our results showed that all 8 test substances were not classified as eye irritants which could cause serious eye damage according to the BCOP assay associated with histopathology and the HET-CAM assay. But four test substances showed to be mild irritants in the HUVEC test. To the best of our knowledge, our results are the first reported data about the classification of the potential eye irritation of stem-cell based cosmetics, and demonstrate that the validated BCOP assay combined with other alternative tests such as the HET-CAM assay and the HUVEC test, may be able to indicate mild to serious eye irritants.