Endocrine disruptors: more than a screening test
Endocrine disruption is receiving increased attention across the cosmetics and personal care industry. For brands and ingredient manufacturers, the question is no longer simply “does this ingredient show endocrine activity?”, but also through which pathway, under what conditions, and with what relevance to consumer exposure?
There is no single test that can answer all these questions. A robust strategy can combine OECD-based endocrine screening, mechanistic investigations, metabolism, and dermal exposure data to build a broader weight-of-evidence assessment. The OECD itself uses a conceptual framework covering different levels of biological complexity for the testing and assessment of potential endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
1. Screening key endocrine pathways
Eurofins Cosmetics & Personal Care can support in vitro investigation of key endocrine mechanisms, including oestrogenic, androgenic and steroidogenic activity.
Depending on the assessment strategy, available approaches include:
- Oestrogen receptor transactivation, OECD TG 455
- Androgen receptor transactivation, OECD TG 458
- H295R Steroidogenesis Assay, OECD TG 456
- Oestrogen receptor binding, OECD TG 493 / OPPTS 890.1250
- Aromatase assay, OPPTS 890.1200
For example, OECD TG 456 uses the human H295R cell line to detect substances affecting 17β-oestradiol and testosterone production, providing mechanistic information for screening and prioritisation. OECD Test Guideline 456: H295R Steroidogenesis Assay.
Similarly, OECD TG 455 covers in vitro transactivation assays for the detection of oestrogen receptor agonists.
2. Going deeper into biological activity
When screening raises questions, complementary methods can help investigate the biological response in greater depth.
The BioMAP® platform provides a complementary approach using human primary cells, co-cultures, tissue-relevant stimuli and biomarker readouts, adding a human biology perspective to the investigation.
Additional metabolism investigations can provide information on parameters including permeability, protein binding, metabolic stability, metabolite profiling, and Phase I/Phase II metabolism.
3. Putting hazard into the context of exposure
For a cosmetic ingredient, detecting biological activity is only part of the safety assessment. Understanding whether and to what extent an ingredient can cross the skin barrier can provide important complementary exposure information.
Eurofins Cosmetics & Personal Care can combine endocrine investigations with in vitro dermal absorption / skin penetration studies according to OECD TG 428, an approach already integrated into our C&PC in vitro safety offer.
4. From endocrine activity to a more complete picture
By combining:
OECD endocrine screening → mechanistic investigation → BioMAP® → metabolism → OECD 428 dermal absorption → toxicological interpretation
Eurofins Cosmetics & Personal Care can help build a tailored, science-based testing strategy according to the ingredient, available data and assessment objectives. Eurofins Cosmetics & Personal Care's existing C&PC approach already combines endocrine activity, agonist/antagonist profiles, metabolism, and dermal absorption as complementary areas of investigation.
The objective is not simply to identify potential endocrine activity, but to better understand its mechanism and place the findings into the context of biological relevance and consumer exposure.
Assessing an ingredient for potential endocrine activity? Talk to our Eurofins Cosmetics & Personal Care experts about the testing strategy best suited to your ingredients and assessment needs.