Eye irritation of low-irritant cosmetic formulations: correlation of in vitro results with clinical data and product composition

Overall, although HET-CAM results were unrelated to eye discomfort and adverse clinical signs, they correlated mainly with the presence and concentration of surfactants in the test articles. BCOP scores were unrelated to clinical signs, but related mainly to glycol and sodium lactate content and concentration in the test articles. Cytotoxicity in CEPI mainly correlated with presence and concentrations of surfactants, and IL-8 release to clinical signs and/or glycol and sodium lactate concentrations. Overall, IL-8 release appeared to be the most sensitive and reliable endpoint to predict human eye tolerance to mildly irritant products. Although our results suggest that the IL-8 assay appears to be a promising screen for borderline-irritant formulations, further experiments are required to confirm and validate these preliminary results.