Performance of the Isolated Chicken Eye (ICE) test method in detecting ocular corrosives and severe irritants DG Allen1, BC Blackard1, NY Choksi1, CJ Inhof1, JF Truax1,
RR Tice1, WS Stokes2
1. Integrated Laboratory Systems, Inc./NICEATM, RTP, NC, USA
Ethical (animal welfare), economic (development of higher throughput
testing), and scientific (development of mechanistic studies) concerns
have led researchers to develop in vitro alternatives for the current in
vivo rabbit eye test. NICEATM evaluated four in vitro test methods for
their ability to identify substances that cause ocular corrosion or
severe irritation. One of these test methods, ICE, is an organotypic
model that provides short-term maintenance of the chicken eye in an
isolated system. The ability of ICE to correctly identify ocular
corrosives and severe irritants using available ICE and corresponding in
vivo rabbit eye test data was evaluated according to current hazard
classification schemes for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the
European Union, and the UN Globally Harmonized System of Classification
and Labeling of Chemicals. Based on an interim analysis, ICE appears
useful (with the exception of testing alcohols, surfactants, and solids)
in a weight-of-evidence tiered testing strategy. Accordingly, positive
results could be used to classify and label a substance, while
substances with negative results would undergo additional testing. This
approach would reduce the number of animals used for eye irritation
testing and the number of animals experiencing pain and distress. A
proposed standardized test method protocol and a proposed list of
reference substances have been developed for use in future validation
and/or testing studies to further characterize the accuracy, the
reliability, and the applicability domain of ICE for the detection of
ocular corrosives and severe irritants. ILS staff supported by NIEHS
contract N01-ES 35504. P159 Date: Tuesday, August 23, 2005, 13.00-14.00 h 5.5 Session: Advancements and Needs for Developing and Validating Alternatives for Ocular Irritancy and Corrosivity Testing. This page was last updated May 9, 2007 Contact the webmaster Return to the NICEATM/ICCVAM Home Page |