Skin sensitization: understanding the in vivo situation for the development of reliable in vitro test approaches.

Due to increasing public concern and the adoption of the 7th Amendment to the Cosmetics Directive, the development of in vitro models for predicting the sensitizing potential of chemicals is receiving widespread interest. This overview describes some of our current research projects exploiting known molecular and cellular events occurring during the acquisition of skin sensitization. Once combined in a test battery, these different in vitro approaches are expected to provide reliable methods for the detection of contact allergens.