Sensitizing capacity and cross-reactivity of phenyl glycidyl ether studied in the guinea-pig maximization test.

BACKGROUND

Simultaneous contact allergies to the reactive diluent phenyl glycidyl ether (PGE) and epoxy resins based on diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) or epoxy resins of the bisphenol F-type have been reported. The latter epoxy resins contain three isomers of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol F (DGEBF). PGE, DGEBA, and DGEBF are chemically similar with respect to the reactive glycidyl group and an aromatic ring, making cross-reactivity one of the possible explanations to simultaneous reactions.

AIM: To investigate the sensitizing capacity of PGE and the cross-reactivity of PGE versus the epoxy resin monomers DGEBA and the three DGEBF monomers and vice versa.

METHOD: The guinea-pig maximization test.

RESULTS

PGE is a strong sensitizer. Induction with DGEBA resulted in a statistically significant number of animals reacting to PGE, but when induced with PGE, the animals did not react significantly to DGEBA.

CONCLUSIONS

When the results are applied to humans, it can be assumed that patients sensitized primarily to DGEBA react to PGE, but when sensitized exclusively to PGE, they do not react to DGEBA. Both reactive diluents and epoxy resins should be tested when contact allergy to epoxy resin systems are suspected.