XCellR8 eliminates need for cosmetics testing on animals

A UK-based XCellR8 has developed a method to end the need for testing of cosmetics on animals.

This approach is not only more scientifically advanced but also cruelty-free than the present methods.

The firm makes use of scaffolds of cells of human skin donated by patients who have undergone plastic surgery. These skins can be used to test cosmetic products.

XCellR8 founder Dr Carol Treasure was quoted by Reuters as saying: "For skin irritation testing the cells are isolated from human skin that has been donated by people who have had plastic surgery and they’ve said that they’re quite happy for the tissue to be used for research purposes. So human skins cells are isolated from those skin samples and they’re grown in the laboratory."

As skin cells are often the first to be exposed to cosmetics, they indicate the scope of damage to other part of the body. As there is always a tendency for cosmetic ingredients to be absorbed into the bloodstream and later passing to the organs, it is essential that harmful impacts are thoroughly examined.

Treasure stated: "What you end up with is an artificial piece of skin in the laboratory where if you cut a cross section through it is almost identical to real skin on the body. It even has a skin barrier so you can apply full cosmetic formulations to the surface. And what we do is then incubate those skin models with samples of cosmetic products or ingredients and then we can look at how much damage is being done to the skin over a period of time."

Currently, there are other kinds of human cell-based alternative testing approaches but these still end up using animal parts such as horse serum.

Treasure added: "One of the unique things about XCellR8 is that we’ve eradicated all of those components and so we have a truly animal free testing laboratory."