Abstract

This study presents the development of cell-based microfluidic chips for the performance of acute eye irritation tests due to chemicals and examined some of their applications. Microfluidic chips were fabricated by photolithography and soft lithography, and they had three compartments with different areas for cell culture. Rabbit corneal epithelial cells were used for the eye irritation test. The death of cells cultured inside the chip was monitored at regular time intervals after treatment with an aqueous solution of chemicals, and the cell death rate constants were calculated based on the viability curve. The performance of the microfluidic chip was verified by examining the effects of cell-cell junctions, cell-substrate adhesion, and initial cell numbers compared to cell death rates. Eye irritation tests were performed at various concentrations of an aqueous solution of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), a standard substance for the eye irritant test. The cells were exposed to the SDS aqueous solution for 300 s, and the resulting eye irritation was assessed by cell viability. Finally, the equation for calculating the toxicity score (TS) was derived based on the weighting factor for each compartment in the chip. The cell-based microfluidic chip developed in this study may be used for eye irritation tests from chemicals used in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.