Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre (SEAC); Unilever; Sharnbrook, Bedfordshire UK.
Organogenesis. 2009 Apr;5(2):67-72. doi: 10.4161/org.5.2.9128.
Humans are exposed to a variety of chemicals in their everyday lives through interactions with the environment and through the use of consumer products. It is a basic requirement that these products are tested to assure they are safe under normal and reasonably foreseeable conditions of use. Within the European Union, the majority of tests used for generating toxicological data rely on animals. However recent changes in legislation (e.g., 7(th) amendment of the Cosmetics Directive and REACH) are driving researchers to develop and adopt non-animal alternative methods with which to assure human safety. Great strides have been made to this effect, but what other opportunities/technologies exist that could expedite this? Tissue engineering has increasing scope to contribute to replacing animals with scientifically robust alternatives in basic research and safety testing, but is this application of the technology being fully exploited? This review highlights how the consumer products industry is applying tissue engineering to ensure chemicals are safe for human use without using animals, and identifies areas for future development and application of the technology.
人类在日常生活中通过与环境的相互作用以及使用消费产品而接触到各种化学物质。这些产品需要经过测试，以确保在正常和可合理预见的使用条件下是安全的，这是一项基本要求。在欧盟，用于生成毒理学数据的大多数测试都依赖于动物。然而，最近的立法变化（例如，化妆品指令的第 7 次修正案和 REACH）正在推动研究人员开发和采用非动物替代方法来确保人类安全。为此已经取得了重大进展，但是还有哪些其他机会/技术可以加速这一进程呢？组织工程学在基础研究和安全性测试中用科学合理的替代方案替代动物方面具有越来越大的潜力，但是这项技术的应用是否得到了充分利用呢？本文综述了消费产品行业如何应用组织工程学来确保化学品对人类使用是安全的，而无需使用动物，并确定了该技术未来的发展和应用领域。
