Ethylene glycol ethers are a well-known series of solvents and hydraulic fluids derived from the reaction of ethylene oxide and monoalcohols. Use of methanol as the alcohol results in a series of mono, di and triethylene glycol methyl ethers. The first in the series, monoethylene glycol methyl ether (EGME or 2-methoxyethanol) is well characterised and metabolises in vivo to methoxyacetic acid (MAA), a known reproductive toxicant. Metabolism data is not available for the di and triethylene glycol ethers (DEGME and TEGME respectively). This study evaluated the metabolism of these two substances in male rats following single oral gavage doses of 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/kg for DEGME and 1000 mg/kg for TEGME. As for EGME, the dominant metabolite of each was the acid metabolite derived by oxidation of the terminal hydroxyl group. Elimination of these metabolites was rapid, with half-lives <4 h for each one. Both substances were also found to produce small amounts of MAA (~0.5% for TEGME and ~1.1% for DEGME at doses of 1000 mg/kg) through cleavage of the ether groups in the molecules. These small amounts of MAA produced can explain the effects seen at high doses in reproductive studies using DEGME and TEGME.

中文翻译：

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二甘醇甲醚和三甘醇甲醚在Sprague-Dawley大鼠中的尿代谢谱以及代谢产物甲氧基乙酸在其毒性中的作用。

乙二醇醚是由环氧乙烷与一元醇反应制得的一系列众所周知的溶剂和液压油。使用甲醇作为醇会产生一系列单，二和三乙二醇甲基醚。该系列中的第一个是单乙二醇甲基醚（EGME或2-甲氧基乙醇），具有良好的特性，可在体内代谢为甲氧基乙酸（MAA），一种已知的生殖毒性物质。没有有关二乙二醇醚和三乙二醇醚的代谢数据（分别为DEGME和TEGME）。这项研究评估了在分别口服灌胃剂量分别为DEGME 500、1000和2000 mg / kg和TEGME 1000 mg / kg的雄性大鼠中这两种物质的代谢。至于EGME，每种的主要代谢物是末端羟基氧化而得的酸代谢物。这些代谢物的清除很快，每个半衰期均小于4小时。通过裂解分子中的醚基团，还发现这两种物质均产生少量的MAA（TEGME约为0.5％，DEGME约为1.1％）。产生的少量MAA可以解释在使用DEGME和TEGME进行的生殖研究中高剂量观察到的效果。