Comparison of Some In Vitro Assays as an Alternative to In Vivo Eye Irritation Test for Surfactants

We comparerd the correlations between in vivo Draize eye irritation score and 4 in vitro cytotoxicity assays-1. neutral red assay, 2. MTT assay, 3. LDH assay, 4. crystal violet assay, on about 60 surfactants. There were a good correlation between in vivo draize eye irritation score and each in vitro assays used in this study. These results suggested that the 4 assays used in this study may be useful as an alternative method of in vivo draize eye irritation test for surfactants. But the LDH assay may be affected by protein denaturation reagents as an anionic surfactants. So It must be careful to use the LDH assay as a screening of anionic surfactants. The natural red assay was better correlation to in vivo Draize eye irritation score than the other assays in this study.