The publication of a study by Coleman and colleagues (2015) that evaluates the SenCeeToxTM as a possible in vitro alternative for assessing skin sensitization in medical devices was recently named “Best Published Paper” by the Society of Toxicology Medical Device Specialty Section. Skin sensitization tests are among the tests recommended by regulatory agencies, such as […]
Researchers from the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and the Bioinformatics Institute at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore have reported significant breakthroughs in the development of an animal-free approach for predicting the toxicity of drugs and other substances to the human kidney (i.e., nephrotoxicity). The proximal tubule cells (PTCs) of […]
Microelectrode arrays (MEAs) are described by Shafer (2011) as “groups of extracellular electrodes that are 10-30 microns in diameter and can be utilized in vivo or in vitro. For in vitro uses, an MEA typically contains up to 64 electrodes and can be utilized to measure the activity of cells and tissues that are electrically […]
In a recent paper in PNAS, Michael P. Schwarz and co-authors describe a method for creating structurally complex, 3D neural constructs for neurotoxicity testing, by co-culturing human embryonic stem cell-derived neural progenitor cells, endothelial cells, mesenchymal cells, and microglia/macrophage precursors. The resulting neural constructs more closely replicate human brain tissue than monocultures or animal-derived cells, […]
Three recent papers address some of the challenges regulatory agencies and manufacturers face when it comes to nanomaterials and nanomaterial-containing products: one outlines the specific kinds of information most needed for risk assessment and management, and two describe approaches that could be standardized to make those assessments. In Biological responses to engineered nanomaterials: Needs for […]
As a follow-up to our update of the Ecotoxicity Regulatory Overview section last month, we decided to highlight the relevant, recent publication on the isolation and initial characterization of the first humpback whale fibroblast cell lines by Burkard, et al. (2015). Cells were isolated from humpback whale skin samples obtained from healthy, free-swimming whales using […]
Bhhatarai, et al. (2015), in an upcoming article in the journal Toxicological Sciences, describe their study as a milestone for non-animal approaches for acute toxicity testing as it lays “the framework for broader approaches to read-across that includes interspecies and mechanistic HTS [high-throughput screening] data and also highlights the importance of addressing systemic bioavailability.” The […]
The proliferation of microfluidic systems in the scientific literature makes it difficult to keep up with this emerging technology. However, only a portion of these are microphysiological or “human-on-a-chip” systems being developed for toxicity testing applications. An interesting one that caught our eye is the article, “Chip-based human liver–intestine and liver–skin co-cultures – A first […]
Researchers from Colorado State University used an enhanced process for creating human hepatocyte-like cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-HH) to produce hepatocytes with a more consistent phenotype and longer life span than previous methods have yielded. In a new paper in Toxicological Sciences, the team describes the ability of these new cells to […]
Organoids are in vitro organ models generated by the self-assembly of cells (likely to be stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells) into small tissues that replicate some of the 3-dimensional (3-D) cellular and structural complexity of the in vivo tissue/organ. The growing interest in generating organoids as research and testing models was reviewed in […]
