[Cytotoxicity of various non-corrective and decorative contact lenses]

Non-corrective and decorative contact lenses can be purchased as sundries without the guidance of medical doctor. Recently, many cases of eye injury by utilizing these lenses have been reported. To estimate their cytotoxic potential to cause eye injury, cytotoxicity tests of the commercially available non-corrective and decorative contact lenses were performed utilizing the V79 cell colony assay. By the colony assays of the lenses and their extracts, it was suggested that two tested lenses out of the ten are cytotoxic. Although preservatives for these lenses in the products showed cytotoxicity, the cytotoxicity of the two lenses is suggested to be ascribed to un-identified materials, which can be extracted to a cell culture medium from them. The results of this study indicate that cytotoxicity of the non-corrective and decorative contact lenses would be better to be evaluated for estimating their biological safety.