Assessment of eye irritation potential is part of the international regulatory requirements for safety testing of chemicals.Because of increasing concerns about to animal welfare in recent years,the development of alternative methods to reduce the number of animals used in eye irritation tests has become imperative.This article introduces in vitro test methods based on organotypic models,cell lines and reconstructed human cornea-like epithelium(RhCE),and analyzes strengths and weaknesses of the individual in vitro test methods.To overcome the limitations of the individual in vitro test methods,it is recommended that tiered testing strategies be adopted that combine the strengths of individual in vitro test methods to address the required ranges of irritation potential.Future applications of new technolo-gies such as genomics,proteomics and computational models in the assessment of eye irritation poten-tial are also predicted.

Assessment of eye irritation potential is part of the international regulatory requirements for safety testing of chemicals.Because of increasing concerns about to animal welfare in recent years,the development of alternative methods to reduce the number of animals used in eye irritation tests has become imperative.This article introduces in vitro test methods based on organotypic models,cell lines and reconstructed human cornea-like epithelium(RhCE),and analyzes strengths and weaknesses of the individual in vitro test methods.To overcome the limitations of the individual in vitro test methods,it is recommended that tiered testing strategies be adopted that combine the strengths of individual in vitro test methods to address the required ranges of irritation potential.Future applications of new technolo-gies such as genomics,proteomics and computational models in the assessment of eye irritation poten-tial are also predicted.