Abstract
In order to examine the participation of calcium in contact sensitization pathways, sensitizing tests and human patch test were conducted by means of cutaneous administration of chelating agents with several allergens.
Experiments were conducted by adjuvant patch tests in guinea pigs, using ethylenediaminetetra acetic acid (EDTA) as the chelating agents and paraphenylenediamine (PPD) as the sensitizing agent. Groups for PPD only sensitization, mixture of PPD and EDTA sensitization, EDTA only sensitization and vehicle as a control were established, then these materials administered on individual animals for eliciting. In this way the influence of EDTA administration on induction and on allergic inflammatory responses was examined.
As a result, in the 1.0% PPD induction group, both the sensitizing factor and eliciting responses did not show variation from the values of the control groups; but in the case of 0.1% PPD induction goups, both sensitizing factor and eliciting responses showed a decrease with the cutaneous administration of EDTA. Therefore it is thought that EDTA was operating in an anti-inflammatory and/or sensitizing controlling capacity.
In addition 48-hour patch tests using 1-carvone and some chelating agents were conducted on a human subject with allergic contact dermatitis to 1-carvone. In these results as well, decreased skin responses in cases with chelating agents were noted.
From these results we report interesting information regarding the relationship between calcium and the mechanism of Type IV allergy and the anti-allergic property of chelating agents.
