PREDICTING THE OCULAR IRRITATION POTENTIAL OF SURFACTANTS USING THE IN-VITRO SKIN(2) MODEL ZK1200

Eight raw materials (seven nonionic surfactants and one anionic surfac tant) were evaluated in Skin(2) model ZK1200 to determine their in vit ro ocular irritation potential. In vivo ocular irritation scores for t hese surfactants ranged from nonirritating to severely irritating. Cyt otoxicity values, obtained via MTT reduction, were used to rank order the test materials as well as classify and group them according to the ir ocular irritation potential. The human skin model and protocol used in this research appear to be promising in vitro tools for categorizi ng surfactants and offer a high degree of correlation with published i n vivo results.