In vitro models for human skin disease.

Modern tissue culture technology has made it possible to generate human skin equivalents that represent either epidermis or epidermis plus dermis (full-thickness skin) in vitro. Commercially available skin equivalents and in-house models are used for safety analysis of cosmetics and toxicity screening of various pharmaceutical compounds. Recently, tissue culture technology has also been used to develop in vitro models of skin disease, in particular to promote cutaneous drug research while sparing experimental animals. The spectrum of model diseases available covers a range from inflammatory disease to cancer. It has, thus, been possible to gain more insight into the role of active pharmaceutical ingredients of various dermatologically relevant drug classes as well as conventional and innovative formulations.