Skin Sensitisation Case Study: Comparison of Defined Approaches including OECD 497 Guidance

Abstract

Characterising known and new chemical compounds for skin sensitisation provides a basis for the development of safer products where ingredients are exposed to skin. By including new approaches, such as tiered testing strategies and integrated data analysis, it is possible to develop next generation products adhering to emerging regulations, scientific evidence and animal welfare principles. To ensure data integrity during such assessment the OECD provides characterisation guidelines and Defined Approaches (DAs) to uniform work-flows. In this study we developed and applied the integrated characterisation tool called < > to compare the results of different DAs for eight compounds and included results obtained from current OECD guidance and emerging methods. We tested two compounds with unclear or indeterminate results with the SENS-IS assay to explore the value of the experiment in strengthening the weight of evidence and arriving at a clearer conclusion.