Nowadays natural products of excellence have to fulfill a lot of requirements. Above all the concentration of active compounds should be consistent throughout all product batches. Quite a challenge in product development, considering the variability of herbal raw material. Furthermore, it must be shown that products do not contain any hazardous substances, such as skin sensitizers.
In our laboratories we have established test systems based on 2D and 3D cell cultures. They reflect the features of tissues and organs (e.g. skin, lungs, intestines, liver, tumor tissue) in the context of the human body, with 3D cell cultures resembling natural conditions as closely as possible. Analysis and interpretation of results are carried out in fully automated cell culture systems. This helps save time and money when assessing enormous numbers of samples.
For sophisticated scientific questions, so-called organoids, little models of human organs, can be cultivated. They can be derived straight from patients’ tissue extracted during surgical interventions. The original features of this material are nearly fully preserved. That makes organoids the perfect tools for personalized assessment of the effects of natural substances and drugs.
Our epidermal 2D and 3D cell cultures are the perfect tools for assessing the following claims:
- Safety assessments (skin corrosion, irritation OECD TG 439, OECD TG 431)
- Identification of skin sensitizers (IL-18 release)
- Immunomodulation of the skin
- Brightening or bronzing of the skin
- Epidermal integrity and barrier function
- Anti-inflammatory activity (NF-κB signaling, quantification of absolute amount of chemokines and cytokines)
- Anti-aging
- Antioxidative effect
- Regeneration after sunburn
- Estimate of total amount of phenols
