Cytotoxicity Test

Cytotoxicity

'Cyto' means a cell, and 'toxic' translates into something poisonous. Together they form the word cytotoxic, which refers to any substance or process that can cause a cell to die. Cytotoxicity tests check the toxic levels of any chemical or ingredient that goes into your skin or personal care products. It helps the customer to stay assured that the product they are using is safe and will not cause any form of skin-related complications.
We test our formulations on Human dermal fibroblast cells to check their cytotoxicity effect.

What Are Dermal Fibroblast Cells & Why We Use Them?

Human dermal fibroblast cell lines are cells derived from human skin tissue. They are an excellent tool for investigating the cytotoxicity effect of our products because of their ease of acquisition, handling, and reproducible growth rates. The biological responses that these cell lines trigger on exposure to a potentially-harmful substance tend to mimic the reaction by the fibroblast cells in the human dermis.

How We Test The Cytotoxicity Of Our Products?

Step 1

Inducing Irritation In The Cells

The first step involves inducing irritation in the cells by exposing them to Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). SDS is an anionic detergent that acts as an irritant and rapidly disrupts the cell membrane,stopping various cell functions that keep it alive. Simultaneously, we introduce the test product & a cell media containing essential growth factors to another set of dermal fibroblast cells. With exposure to the test product, the cells may or may not undergo similar events that occur in the first step. We’ll confirm that by tracking the viability of these cells in both cases.

Step 2

Tracking Cell Viability Post-treatment

Cell viability refers to the number of healthy and live cells in a particular sample. Healthy and viable cells with an active metabolic function turn the yellow dye to purple. On the contrary,the dead cells will not take up any stain, helping us to differentiate between the two. Ideally, the cell viability in the case of the test product should be way higher than SDS.

What's The Final Result?

For a product to be considered non-toxic, the cell viability post-treatment with the test product should be <50%. At Areoveda, the tested products reveal similar results!