Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabrics are frequently used in human clothes but are irritant in direct contact with the skin. Although sportswear made of weakacidic PET fabrics did not induced skin eczema on irritant contact dermatitis (ICD) patient, this mechanism was not clear. We performed the patch test using both fabrics in 56 medical students from Kochi University in order to determine whether the skin condition was related to clothing. And we also demonstrated the metal absorption test of synthetic sweat using an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). In addition we demonstrated a protein analysis of sweat from participant using a SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). Thirteen of participants have developed contact dermatitis at the time of this study. There was positive corelation between positive participants of patch test and participants who had past history of clothing dermatitis. We applied synthetic sweat on each fabric and metals were measured. Pb, Cu, Al were strongly absorbed by both fabric, but remaining 7 metals were not absorbed. After absorption to fabrics, proteins in sweat were separated by SDS-PAGE, but there were no difference in the gel at this time.

DESCENTE SPORTS SCIENCE Vol.36/THE DESCENTE AND ISHIMOTO MEMORIAL FOUNDATION FOR THE PROMOTION SPORTS SCIENCE