[Analysis of urinary metabolites of rats exposed to ethylene oxide].

Urinary metabolites of rats exposed to ethylene oxide(EO) were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GC/MS). Male Wister rats(220-240 g) were exposed to EO for 6 hours. The urine was collected during 18 hours after the exposure and extracted with ethyl acetate. For the water-soluble metabolites, ethanol was added to the urine centrifuged and the supernatant fraction was evaporated to dryness. The residue of the extract was methylated with diazomethane and trimethylsilylated with bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide. Ethylene glycol, 2-hydroxymercapturic acid, 2-methylthioethanol and 2-mercaptoethanol were identified as the metabolites of EO. These results suggest that the inhaled EO was hydrolyzed to ethylene glycol, and conjugated with glutathion to form the mercapturic acid and methylthio metabolite.