Thiodiacetic acid--a metabolite of Ethylene oxide.

Urine samples of premature babies contain high amounts of thiodiacetic acid (TDA). Since these pre-term infants are exposed to an increased oxygen atmosphere in the incubator, we supposed that these high levels of thiodiacetic acid might be produced from ethylene, generated in the course of lipid peroxidation processes. Considering that conversion of ethylene to ethylene oxide (EO) is well known in biology we investigated whether ethylene oxide is metabolised to thiodiacetic acid or not. Therefore Sprague-Dawley rats and NMRI mice were exposed to ethylene oxide for six hours. Urine specimens were collected after exposure and the amount of thiodiacetic acid was determined by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The quantity of excreted TDA increased enormously compared to control samples. So thiodiacetic acid seems to be a metabolite of ethylene oxide in vivo.