• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.182-193
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• 2024

To address the limitations of animal testing, scientific research is increasingly focused on developing alternative testing methods. These alternative tests utilize cells or tissues derived from animals or humans for in vitro testing, as well as artificial tissues and organoids. In western countries, animal testing for cosmetics has been banned, leading to the adoption of artificial skin for toxicity evaluation, such as skin corrosion and irritation assessments. Standard guidelines for skin organoid technology becomes necessary to ensure consistent data and evaluation in replacing animal testing with in vitro methods. These guidelines encompass aspects such as cell sourcing, culture techniques, quality requirements and assessment, storage and preservation, and organoid-based assays.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.259-267
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• 2016

Animal testing was used traditionally in the cosmetics industry to confirm product safety, but has begun to be banned; alternative methods to replace animal experiments are either in development, or are being validated, worldwide. Research data related to test substances are critical for developing novel alternative tests. Moreover, safety information on cosmetic materials has neither been collected in a database nor shared among researchers. Therefore, it is imperative to build and share a database of safety information on toxicological mechanisms and pathways collected through in vivo, in vitro, and in silico methods. We developed the CAMSEC database (named after the research team; the Consortium of Alternative Methods for Safety Evaluation of Cosmetics) to fulfill this purpose. On the same website, our aim is to provide updates on current alternative research methods in Korea. The database will not be used directly to conduct safety evaluations, but researchers or regulatory individuals can use it to facilitate their work in formulating safety evaluations for cosmetic materials. We hope this database will help establish new alternative research methods to conduct efficient safety evaluations of cosmetic materials.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.31
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• pp.26.1-26.9
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• 2016

Objectives Korea's Act on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals (K-REACH) was enacted for the protection of human health and the environment in 2015. Considering that about 2000 new substances are introduced annually across the globe, the extent of animal testing requirement could be overwhelming unless regulators and companies work proactively to institute and enforce global best practices to replace, reduce or refine animal use. In this review, the way to reduce the animal use for K-REACH is discussed. Methods Background of the enforcement of the K-REACH and its details was reviewed along with the papers and regulatory documents regarding the limitation of animal experiments and its alternatives in order to discuss the regulatory adoption of alternative tests. Results Depending on the tonnage of the chemical used, the data required ranges from acute and other short-term studies for a single exposure route to testing via multiple exposure routes and costly, longer-term studies such as a full two-generation reproducibility toxicity. The European Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals regulation provides for mandatory sharing of vertebrate test data to avoid unnecessary duplication of animal use and test costs, and obligation to revise data requirements and test guidelines "as soon as possible" after relevant, validated replacement, reduction or refinement (3R) methods become available. Furthermore, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development actively accepts alternative animal tests and 3R to chemical toxicity tests. Conclusions Alternative tests which are more ethical and efficient than animal experiments should be widely used to assess the toxicity of chemicals for K-REACH registration. The relevant regulatory agencies will have to make efforts to actively adopt and uptake new alternative tests and 3R to K-REACH.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.113-124
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• 2024

Background: The increasing need to minimize animal testing has sparked interest in alternative methods with more humane, cost-effective, and time-saving attributes. In particular, in silico-based computational toxicology is gaining prominence. Adverse outcome pathway (AOP) is a biological map depicting toxicological mechanisms, composed of molecular initiating events (MIEs), key events (KEs), and adverse outcomes (AOs). To understand toxicological mechanisms, predictive models are essential for AOP components in computational toxicology, including molecular structures. Objectives: This study reviewed the literature and investigated previous research cases related to AOP and in silico methodologies. We describe the results obtained from the analysis, including predictive techniques and approaches that can be used for future in silico-based alternative methods to animal testing using AOP. Methods: We analyzed in silico methods and databases used in the literature to identify trends in research on in silico prediction models. Results: We reviewed 26 studies related to AOP and in silico methodologies. The ToxCast/Tox21 database was commonly used for toxicity studies, and MIE was the most frequently used predictive factor among the AOP components. Machine learning was most widely used among prediction techniques, and various in silico methods, such as deep learning, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics, were also utilized. Conclusions: We analyzed the current research trends regarding in silico-based alternative methods for animal testing using AOPs. Developing predictive techniques that reflect toxicological mechanisms will be essential to replace animal testing with in silico methods. In the future, since the applicability of various predictive techniques is increasing, it will be necessary to continue monitoring the trend of predictive techniques and in silico-based approaches.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.18.1-18.5
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• 2020

Finding publications that propose alternative methods to animal experiments is an important but time-consuming task since researchers need to perform various queries to literature databases and screen many articles to assess two important aspects: the relevance of the article to the research question, and whether the article's proposed approach qualifies to being an alternative method. We are currently developing a Web application to support finding alternative methods to animal experiments. The current (under development) version of the application utilizes external tools and resources for document processing, and relies on the PubAnnotation ecosystem for annotation querying, annotation storage, dictionary-based tagging of cell lines, and annotation visualization. Currently, our two PubAnnotation repositories for discourse elements contain annotations for more than 110k PubMed documents. Further, we created an annotator for cell lines that contain more than 196k terms from Cellosaurus. Finally, we are experimenting with TextAE for annotation visualization and for user feedback.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.2-11
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• 2024

Background: The small intestine plays a crucial role in animals in maintaining homeostasis as well as a series of physiological events such as nutrient uptake and immune function to improve productivity. Research on intestinal organoids has recently garnered interest, aiming to study various functions of the intestinal epithelium as a potential alternative to an in vivo system. These technologies have created new possibilities and opportunities for substituting animals for testing with an in vitro model. Methods: Here, we report the establishment and characterisation of intestinal organoids derived from jejunum tissues of adult pigs. Intestinal crypts, including intestinal stem cells from the jejunum tissue of adult pigs (10 months old), were sequentially isolated and cultivated over several passages without losing their proliferation and differentiation using the scaffold-based and three-dimensional method, which indicated the recapitulating capacity. Results: Porcine jejunum-derived intestinal organoids showed the specific expression of several genes related to intestinal stem cells and the epithelium. Furthermore, they showed high permeability when exposed to FITC-dextran 4 kDa, representing a barrier function similar to that of in vivo tissues. Collectively, these results demonstrate the efficient cultivation and characteristics of porcine jejunum-derived intestinal organoids. Conclusions: In this study, using a 3D culture system, we successfully established porcine jejunum-derived intestinal organoids. They show potential for various applications, such as for nutrient absorption as an in vitro model of the intestinal epithelium fused with organ-on-a-chip technology to improve productivity in animal biotechnology in future studies.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.302-310
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• 2020

Botulinum toxins are neurotoxic modular proteins composed of a heavy chain and a light chain connected by a disulfide bond and are produced by Clostridium botulinum. Although lethally toxic, botulinum toxin in low doses is clinically effective in numerous medical conditions, including muscle spasticity, strabismus, hyperactive urinary bladder, excessive sweating, and migraine. Globally, several companies are now producing products containing botulinum toxin for medical and cosmetic purposes, including the reduction of facial wrinkles. To test the efficacy and toxicity of botulinum toxin, animal tests have been solely and widely used, resulting in the inevitable sacrifice of hundreds of animals. Hence, alternative methods are urgently required to replace animals in botulinum toxin testing. Here, the various alternative methods developed to test the toxicity and efficacy of botulinum toxins have been briefly reviewed and future perspectives have been detailed.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.725-730
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• 2003

This study was conducted to evaluate the adequacy of an alternative a.m.-p.m. testing scheme for milk yield in comparison with the official test method based on weighing two milkings within 24 h. A total of 8,309 p.m. milking weights and 6,767 a.m. milking weights from 72 Holstein cows raised at N.L.R.I. were collected between October 2000 and November 2001. Ratios were computes for daily milk yield to a.m. and p.m. milking weights(direct yield ratios) and ratios of a.m. and p.m. milking weights to daily milk yield (inverse yield ratios). Analysis of variance indicated that the milking interval is the most important source of variation for yield ratios. Adjustment factors for estimating daily milk yield from single milking weights were derived through regression analysis of direct and inverse yield ratios on the length of the milking interval. Daily milk yield was estimated more precisely and accurately when adjustment factors were used than when single milking weights were doubled. In conclusion, alternative recording of a.m. and p.m. milking weights led to reliable estimates of milk yields.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.113-128
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• 1991

Hepatotoxicity has many facets. Those to be discussed in this review include the mechanism for the hepatotoxic effects, nature of the injury, and animal models of hepatotoxicity suitable for the detection of chemical injury. Some therapeutic drugs used for treatment of hepatitis are also presented. In addition, as an important and serious problem in future, alternative toxicity testing is discussed.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.149-155
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• 2021

In virucidal efficacy testing, the chemical inactivation cannot be determined for all viruses due to the difficulties or the inability to culture sufficiently or the risk of exposure to the viruses. Therefore, disinfectants against these viruses could be evaluated by different methods and surrogate viruses are used as alternative. In this study we developed a method for efficacy testing of veterinary disinfectants using one of the candidate surrogate viruses, bacteriophage MS2, as part of the research on the selection of surrogate viruses for efficiency of efficacy testing of veterinary disinfectants. This method is based on the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (APQA) guidelines for efficacy testing of veterinary disinfectants. Bacteriophage and disinfectant are reacted in suspension in accordance with the APQA guidelines and then a newly established double agar layer method is applied for the efficacy test. The double agar layer method is summarized as follows: 1) The bottom agar with 1.5% agar is boiled and cooled before poured into petri dishes at volume of 20 mL, and dried under biological safety cabinet. 2) The top agar with 0.7% agar is boiled and kept at 50℃ before E. coli culture was seeded. 3) The serially diluted bacteriophage MS2-disinfectant mixtures 0.05 mL and E. coli host 0.01 mL (OD₆₀₀ 0.2~0.3) are mixed with 5 mL of top agar and incubate them at 50℃ for 5 min for reaction. 4) The resulting mixture is poured over top of a bottom agar plate and rocked sufficiently to ensure that the top agar covers the entire surface of the bottom agar. 5) The double agar layer is then placed under biological safety cabinet to allow the agar layer to solidify and subsequently incubated at 37℃ for 24 hr. 6) Following incubation, the plates may be inspected for plaques and record results.