OECD Publishes New Test Guidelines for In Vitro Test Methods to Predict Eye Irritation and Corrosion

OECD has published two new guidelines to classify chemicals’ potential to cause eye damage. The Short Time Exposure (STE) test method is a cell-based cytotoxicity (MTT) assay that identifies substances that cause serious eye damage (UN GHS Cat. 1) and substances that do not require classification for eye irritation or serious eye damage (UN GHS No Cat.). The Reconstructed human Cornea-like Epithelium (RhCE) test method (e.g., EpiOcular) identifies substances that do not require classification for eye irritation or serious eye damage by evaluating the ability of the substance to induce cytotoxicity (MTT assay) in a RhCE tissue.