4.1. On the day of receipt, tissues were aseptically removed from the transport agarose and transferred into cell culture plates. The tissues were preincubated at 37 °C in 5% CO2/95% air for 19 h in order to release transport stress-related compounds and any debris accumulated during shipment. The preincubation period was longer than in the corrosion test since irritation is a much more sensitive endpoint where possible

transport related alterations of the skin equivalents can have a bigger impact on the sensitivity of the test system. After preincubation the tissues were transferred to new cell culture plates containing fresh medium and were exposed topically to the test chemicals and the controls for 60 min. 30 μL of each test item were applied with a micropipette. Each test chemical was applied to three tissues. In addition to the test items a negative control (DPBS) and a positive control (5% SDS in water) was selleck chemicals tested. After the treatment the tissues were stringently rinsed with buffered salt solution in order to completely remove the test item. Afterwards the inserts were transferred into cell culture plates containing fresh medium. The tissues were incubated for 42 h at 37 °C in 5% CO2/95% air. At the end of the incubation period, the viability of the tissues was determined using the MTT ZD1839 assay

on blotted inserts in analogy to the corrosion test as described under Section 2.4.1. Like in the corrosion test, the relative viability was calculated as percentage of the mean viability of the negative controls. The mean of the three values from identically-treated tissues was then used to classify the test item. A test item was considered to be not irritating to the skin if the mean viability of the three tissues was ⩾50% compared to the negative control. In case of a mean viability of <50% the test item was classified as irritating (Xi; R38 or GHS Cat 2). The HET-CAM was carried out as previously described (Steiling et al., 1999) using the reaction

time method for transparent and the endpoint assessment for non-transparent test items. In brief, fertilized eggs were incubated for 9 days prior Mannose-binding protein-associated serine protease to use. Six eggs were used for each test item. The irritation potential is evaluated by occurrence of specific effects to the membranes and/or vessels (hemorrhage (H), lysis (L), coagulation (C)) which are interpreted in comparison to 5% sodium magnesium lauryl-myristyl-6-ethoxysulphate (Texapon ASV, Cognis, Germany). This internal reference compound is included in each study and is known to be moderately irritating to the rabbit eye in vivo. In the reaction time method occurrence of hemorrhage (H), lysis (L), coagulation (C) is observed for 5 min. Both irritation scores, i.e. for the test and benchmark substance, finally result in the Q-value, which is calculated as the quotient of both individual irritation scores (mean over all eggs).