Toxicity of Detergent-based Commercial Products on Cells of a Mouse Line in Suspension Culture as a Possible Screen for the Draize Rabbit Eye Irritation Test

Abstract

Summary The Draize rabbit eye irritation test has several disadvantages and inadequacies when used as an indicator for potential irritancy of detergent-based commercial products. As a possible in vitro screen, it was decided to use mouse LS cells cultured in suspension, taking 50% cell death (CD50) after exposure to the product for 4h as the endpoint. This figure for 11 formulations was compared with eye irritation data ranked using an arbitrary classification of mild, moderate and severe. All samples with a CD50 less than 0.5mg/ml were severe eye irritants, while most of those with a CD50 greater than 1.0mg/ml were mild irritants. Samples between these two cytotoxicity levels were, in general, moderately irritant to the rabbit eye. It would appear that this in vitro test is a possible screen for the irritancy of detergent-based products.