Fruit Acids do not Enhance Sodium Lauryl Sulphate-induced Cumulative Irritant Contact Dermatitis In vivo

Abstract

Combined exposure to different irritants in the workplace may lead to irritant contact dermatitis, which is the main type of occupational dermatitis among bakers and confectioners. Following previous work on "tandem irritation", a panel of healthy volunteers was exposed twice daily for 4 days to the organic fruit acids: citric, malic, and lactic acid, either alone or in tandem application with 0.5% sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) in a repetitive irritation test. Irritant cutaneous reactions were quantified by visual scoring and non-invasive measurement of transepidermal water loss and skin colour reflectance. Twice daily application of either citric or malic acid alone did not induce a significant irritant reaction. Combined exposure to one of the fruit acids and SLS caused marked barrier disturbance, but the latter irritant effect was smaller than that obtained by combined exposure to SLS and water. Thus, combined exposure to the above-mentioned fruit acids and SLS did not enhance cumulative skin irritation.

Additive Impairment of the Barrier Function and Irritation by Biogenic Amines and Sodium Lauryl Sulphate: A Controlled in vivo Tandem Irritation Study

“…in fish and fish products, cheese, meat and fermented foods [2]. We could demonstrate that sequential ('tandem') application by using the 'tandem repeated irritation test' [14][15][16][17] of different irritants modifies the cutaneous response in contrast to repeated exposure to the specific irritant alone.…”

“…Irritant contact dermatitis studies usually focused on different effects of single irritant exposures [3][4][5][6], in particular sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Recently, we have been able to demonstrate that sequential ('tandem') application of different irritants may modify the cutaneous response indicating an aggravating effect of the combination of irritants [14][15][16][17]. It has been shown that the stratum corneum (SC) pH is important for barrier-related parameters, e.g.…”

Tandem Repeated Application of Organic Solvents and Sodium Lauryl Sulphate Enhances Cumulative Skin Irritation

“…However, there are examples of tandem irritation studies, where no additive irritant potential of specific combined exposures was confirmed. N-propanol, a common alcoholic ingredient of skin disinfectants, did not enhance cumulative skin irritation when used with SLS [16], and the same was demonstrated for fruit acids [28]. …”

Damaged Skin

“…The TRIT has since been used to study tandem sequential exposures with SLS and a variety of other chemicals such as propanol and a variety of fruit acids such as citric, malic, and lactic acid [61,62]. A thorough review of tandem irritation studies to date was done by Kartona and Maibach.…”