Beauty brand L'Oreal is 3D printing human skin tissue in order to test cosmetics. The company has partnered with bioprinting specialist Organavo, which can produce living human tissues that mimics the form and function of native tissues in the body, citing "boundless" potential for new types of tests.
Organavo's bioprinting process involves first establishing the design of a particular tissue and then developing "bio-ink" -- the multi-cellular building blocks from the cells that will be used to build the tissue. The bioprinter dispenses the bio-ink in layers, allowing the tissue to be built up vertically.
L'Oreal already has its own business unit dedicated to engineering in vitro skin tissue, but it is clearly keen to experiment with newer, more efficient and potentially less costly engineering methods. The main benefit of 3D printing the skin over other in vitro engineering methods is that it allows the tissue to be fully 3D rather than 2D. "Organovo has broken new ground with 3D bioprinting, an area that complements L'Oreal's pioneering work in the research and application of reconstructed skin for the past 30 years" says Guive Balooch, global vice president of L'Oreal's Technology Incubator. "Our partnership will not only bring about new advanced in vitro methods for evaluating product safety and performance, but the potential for where this new field of technology and research can take us is boundless."
The obvious aim and benefit of testing products on in vitro skin tissue is that it reduces reliance on animal testing. L'Oreal claims not to have tested any of its finished products or the raw ingredients within them on animals since 2013. While it is the aim of many of companies to follow suit, the practice is unfortunately still widespread. The majority of animal testing that takes place within the cosmetics industry occurs in China, which has its own testing framework to ensure products are safe before they are allowed to be sold in the country. "In China, the regulatory authorities carry out within their evaluation centers animal tests for finished cosmetics products before these are placed on their market. We think these tests are unnecessary but we cannot prevent them," states L'Oreal on its website.
The company says it is working in close collaboration with Chinese authorities to try and change the regulatory frameworks so it matches those of other countries, which use alternative methods of testing. In June 2014, the country took its first steps towards reducing reliance on animal testing. Domestic companies that manufacture beauty products within the country can now choose how to test their products. All imported cosmetics, however, are still subject to animal testing.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
