About RepDose


RepDose (repeated dose toxicity) is a relational database on subacute to chronic toxicity and currently contains 655 chemicals.
The toxicity of these chemicals is documented in about 2280 studies, carried out in rats, mice or dogs with oral or inhalation exposure. The database has been developed by Fraunhofer ITEM (Bitsch et al. 2006) with funding from Cefic LRI and grows continuously.

Publicly available, predominantly peer-reviewed studies are entered in the RepDose database.
Sources for data entry are e.g.:
  • German MAK-Documentations
  • EHC
  • EU RAR
  • Reports from German BG Chemie
  • HPV-chemicals
  • NTP reports...
The quality of the study ranked according to the description given in Table 1.

Table 1: data quality criteria used in RepDose
ReliabilityDescription
AAccording to OECD guidelines or similar quality
BSome deficiencies, but relevant for the evaluation
CQuality cannot be assessed, (insufficient information)
DSpecial design for a certain endpoint

Each chemical is characterised by at least one, but up to 15 studies, with the majority of chemicals having 1 to 4 studies. L(N)OEL values (lowest (no) observed effects level) are given for each effect and each study.
The description of observed effects and corresponding targets/organs depends highly on the authors/laboratory of the study, even if OECD guidelines are applied. Therefore, harmonised glossaries describing targets/organs and observed effects were created for RepDose.

The content and structure of the database RepDose provide a sound basis to perform analyses on repeated dose toxicity. RepDose is used by the group of chemical risk assessment at Fraunhofer ITEM to analyse and improve risk assessment strategies.

It contributes to the FP6-EU-programme OSIRIS, where integrated testing strategies are under development to replace or reduce animal tests e.g. under REACH.

Furthermore, the database is used to address structure activity relationships e.g. in the FP7-EU programme OPENTOX.