Studies on contact hypersensitivity in the guinea pig.

A method to determine the quantitative induction and challenge of the allergenicity of externally applied toiletories and cosmetics, including their components, is described. The experiment used oil-soluble cinnamic aldehyde and water-soluble formalin as allergens, and guinea pigs as the experimental animals. A high sensitization method resulted, carried out as follows. A 24-h closed patch is attached to the skin every other day over a period of 2 weeks (a total of 4 applications). Freund's complete adjuvant is administered intradermally just before the 3rd application of the patch. The challenge step is performed by directly applying the test material. This method was compared with other allergenicity evaluation methods. As a result, this method was found to be in no way inferior in sensitization performance to the other methods. The method was used on perfume mixtures and tested for its evaluation effectiveness. It proved to be satisfactory.