In Vitro Skin Penetration of Ethylene Glycol Using Excised Skin from Mice and Humans

Abstract

AbstractEthylene glycol (EG; CAS No. 107-21-1) has a wide variety of industrial uses, but its most common consumer use is as an antifreeze and a deicing fluid. Therefore, skin contact is considered the most common exposure route for people. Because of this, EG was evaluated for its skin penetration characteristics using an established in vitro technique. Full-thickness skin preparations from female CD-I mice and female human abdominal skin were used. Skin preparations were placed in a dynamic, flow-through design skin penetration apparatus. [14C]EG was applied undiluted or as a 50% (w/w) aqueous solution (antifreeze use concentration) at a target dosage of 22–28 mg EG/cm2 of skin surface in an “infinite dose” manner. The time course of 14C penetration was measured for 6 h. The lag times before steady-state rates of penetration were attained were three times longer for human skin (∼3 h) than that for mouse skin (∼ 1 h). For mouse skin, the steady-state rate of penetration for undiluted EG (0.52 mg/cm2/h) w...