Suspension Culture of Erythrocytes in the Assessment of the Detergent Functional Component Toxicity Level

Background. The study is devoted to the assessment of the cytotoxic properties of various surfactants by a method that is highly sensitive to identification of their negative effect on living mammalian cells. Objective. The aim of the work is to carry out a comparative assessment of modern surfactants in terms of the degree of manifestation of cytotoxic properties. Methods. The study of 10 surfactants was carried out with a new method for assessing the cytotoxic effect of agents based on surfactants, which is a modification of The RBC Hemolysis Test and Hemoglobin Denaturation Test. This method calculates the integral cytotoxicity index, which takes into account the data obtained by two tests. The following indicators were determined in the work: the percentage of hemoglobin denaturation in a 1% surfactant solution (D, %), the concentration of the surfactant solution at which hemolysis of 50% erythrocytes occurs (H50,%), and the cytotoxicity coefficient (Cc, conv. un.) of surfactants which is calculated by the formula Cc = H50/D×10000. Results. According to the integral Cc indicator, the studied surfactants can be ranked according to the degree of toxicity reduction in the following order: sodium lauryl sulfate (0.09) – sodium laurate sulfate (0.13) – cocamidopropyl betaine (0.27) – sodium salt of polyethoxysulfosuccinate (0.27) – alkyldimethyl betaine (1.07) – disodium cocoamphodiacetate (1.99) – sodium salt n-palmethylglutamic acid (3.22) – cocoglucoside (27.86). Diethanolamides of coconut oil fatty acids and polyquaternium 7 in the studied concentration range (up to 1%) did not show denaturation properties. Conclusions. Studies have shown that surfactants significantly differ from each other by the level of the damaging effect, the most aggressive components were anionic and amphoteric surfactants, nonionic surfactants have a significantly lower cytotoxic effect (10 times). The results obtained should be taken into account when creating soft agents based on surfactants.