In vitro Models for Chemical Toxicity: Review of their Applications and Prospects

Since it has been considered acceptable to expose animal to conditions and procedures that would not be considered acceptable for human, animals have long been used as surrogates for human beings for in vivo toxicology. This has focused mainly on gaining a better understanding of how the body's cells, organs, and systems function and are controlled, which failures could lead to pathological conditions. However, attitudes that rely on this approach are changing as the know ledge gained from animal studies is not directly related to humans, and there is a growing perception that it can also have dangerous consequences. In this re view, I collected the references about not only in vitro models for chemical toxicity, but also their applications and prospects focused on chemical hazard evaluations. In this review, I try to gather the issues and considerations that are considered necessary to develop a viable and reliable testing strategy to replace animals in toxicity testing. Most of the authors of the papers cited here share the opinion that animals will no longer be used for safety assessment, but that a more predictable human-derived in vitro system and in silico approach will be developed step-by-step. I collected information from peer-reviewed literature on the in vitro models for toxicological investigation of chemicals that may impact environmental or occupational diseases.