Abstract
On the basis of the hypothesis that eye irritation by chemicals is a consequence of damage to the cellular plasma membrane and to proteins, we have developed a spectrophotometric hemoglobin denaturation assay to predict eye irritation. Serial dilution of 12 kinds of surfactants were examined and the results were compared with the Draize scores already reported by our colleague. Correlation analysis, factorial analysis and multi-regression analysis yielded the following results.
1) Quite good correlations were found between hemoglobin denaturation ratio and the Draize scores.
2) Factorial analysis indicated that there are two concentration dependent factors predominantly influence hemoglobin denaturation.
3) Higher correlations could be obtained by multi-regression analysis (corneal and total Draize scores gave correlation coefficients of r=0.878 and r=0.861, respectively).
23 surfactants were subjected to hemoglobin denaturation test, then their structural group were categorized and quantification theory (category 1) was applied to elucidate the structure-activity relationship. Results of the analysis indicated that very high correlation (r=0.92) were obtained on the structure-activity relationship. The results make it possible to predict the eye irritancy scores of surfactants containing any combination of the classified structure without any experimental efforts.
