The 7th amendment to the EU Cosmetics Directive prohibits to put animal-tested cosmetics on the market in Europe after 2013. In that context, the European Commission invited stakeholder bodies (industry, non-governmental organisations, EU Member States, and the Commission's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety) to identify scientific experts in five toxicological areas, i.e. toxicokinetics, repeated dose toxicity, carcinogenicity, skin sensitisation, and reproductive toxicity for which the Directive foresees that the 2013 deadline could be further extended in case alternative and validated methods would not be available in time. The selected experts were asked to analyse the status and prospects of alternative methods and to provide a scientifically sound estimate of the time necessary to achieve full replacement of animal testing. In summary, the experts confirmed that it will take at least another 7-9 years for the replacement of the current in vivo animal tests used for the safety assessment of cosmetic ingredients for skin sensitisation. However, the experts were also of the opinion that alternative methods may be able to give hazard information, i.e. to differentiate between sensitisers and non-sensitisers, ahead of 2017. This would, however, not provide the complete picture of what is a safe exposure because the relative potency of a sensitiser would not be known. For toxicokinetics, the timeframe was 5-7 years to develop the models still lacking to predict lung absorption and renal/biliary excretion, and even longer to integrate the methods to fully replace the animal toxicokinetic models. For the systemic toxicological endpoints of repeated dose toxicity, carcinogenicity and reproductive toxicity, the time horizon for full replacement could not be estimated.

No abstract

Chronic bioassays with trichloroethene (TRI) demonstrated carcinogenicity in mice (hepatocellular carcinomas) and rats (renal tubular cell adenomas and carcinomas). The chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity is due to bioactivation reactions. TRI is metabolized by cytochrome P450 and by conjugation with glutathione. Glutathione conjugation results in S-(dichlorovinyl) glutathione (DCVG) and is presumed to be the initial biotransformation step resulting in the formation of nephrotoxic metabolites. Enzymes of the mercapturic acid pathway cleave DCVG to the corresponding cysteine S-conjugate, which is, after translocation to the kidney, cleaved by renal cysteine S-conjugate beta -lyase to the electrophile chlorothioketene. After N-acetylation, cysteine S-conjugates are also excreted as mercapturic acids in urine. The object of this study was the dose-dependent quantification of the two isomers of N-acetyl-S-(dichlorovinyl)-L-cysteine, trichloroethanol and trichloroacetic acid, as markers for the glutathione- and cytochrome P450-mediated metabolism, respectively, in the urine of humans and rats after exposure to TRI. Three male volunteers and four rats were exposed to 40, 80 and 160 ppm TRI for 6 h. A dose-dependent increase in the excretion of trichloroacetic acid, trichloroethanol and N-acetyl-S-(dichlorovinyl)-L-cysteine after exposure to TRI was found both in humans and rats. Amounts of 3100 mumol trichloroacetic acid + trichloroethanol and 0.45 mumol mercapturic acids were excreted in urine of humans over 48 h after exposure to 160 ppm TRI. The ratio of trichloroacetic acid + trichloroethanol/mercapturic acid excretion was comparable in rats and humans. A slow rate of elimination with urine of N-acetyl-S-(dichlorovinyl)-L-cysteine was observed both in humans and in rats. However, the ratio of the two isomers of N-acetyl-S-(dichlorovinyl)-L-cysteine was different in man and rat. The results confirm the finding of the urinary excretion of mercapturic acids in humans after TRI exposure and suggest the formation of reactive intermediates in the metabolism of TRI after bioactivation by glutathione also in humans.

No abstract

In general, xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes (XMEs) are expressed in lower levels in the extrahepatic tissues than in the liver, making the former less relevant for the clearance of xenobiotics. Local metabolism, however, may lead to tissue-specific adverse responses, e.g. organ toxicities, allergies or cancer. This review summarizes the knowledge on the expression of phase I and phase II XMEs and transporters in extrahepatic tissues at the body's internal-external interfaces. In the lung, CYPs of families 1, 2, 3 and 4 and epoxide hydrolases are important phase I enzymes, while conjugation is less relevant. In skin, phase I-related enzymatic reactions are considered less relevant. Predominant skin XMEs are phase II enzymes, whereby glucuronosyltransferases (UGT) 1, glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and N-acetyltransferase (NAT) 1 are important for detoxification. The intestinal epithelium expresses many transporters and phase I XME with high levels of CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 and phase II metabolism is mainly related to UGT, NAT and Sulfotransferases (SULT). In the kidney, conjugation reactions and transporters play a major role for excretion processes. In the bladder, CYPs are relevant and among the phase II enzymes, NAT1 is involved in the activation of bladder carcinogens. Expression of XMEs is regulated by several mechanisms (nuclear receptors, epigenetic mechanisms, microRNAs). However, the understanding why XMEs are differently expressed in the various tissues is fragmentary. In contrast to the liver - where for most XMEs lower expression is demonstrated in early life - the XME ontogeny in the extrahepatic tissues remains to be investigated.