In vitro safety tests may be used as replacements for animal tests owing to their accuracy and high-throughput performance. However, several in vitro skin sensitization tests produce false-negative results such as acid anhydride. Here, we investigated the relationship between false-negative results of acid anhydride and its hydrolysis by aqueous vehicle. Differences in the pattern of hydrolysis for phthalic anhydride (PAH) due to addition of 1 drop of stock solution of PAH in liquid paraffin (LP) dispersion medium and PAH in DMSO were analyzed in a cell-free system. The results showed that use of LP dispersion medium stabilized the concentration of PAH in water over 5min by sustained-release, although almost all PAH converted to phthalic acid in water within 5min using DMSO. Additionally, treatment of THP-1 cells with PAH and phthalic acid using LP dispersion medium for 5min resulted in a 32-fold increase in IL-8 release for PAH as compared with that in the vehicle control. In contrast, for PAH using aqueous vehicle and phthalic acid using LP dispersion medium, there were no significant increases in IL-8 release. Similarly, using LP dispersion medium, trimellitic anhydride significantly increased IL-8 release was observed.
