PPD can be reproduced in an animal model. It may be caused by the peel juice of Tahitian and Sicilian lemon. Because of an extremely short time of exposure (2.5 min) is sufficient to induce PPD it is necessary to alert the population, of the need for caution when handling lemons, especially outdoors despite using sunblock.

PPD can be successfully reproduced in rat skin. After 24 h spongiosis, vacuolization and keratinocyte necrosis are observed, clinically there are no changes. After 48 h, erythema appears with intra- and subepidermal blistering.

The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of topical thiocyanate (SCN(-)) application on hamster cheek pouch mucosa. Sixty-six hamsters were divided into two groups. The test substance containing potassium thiocyanate was applied on the hamsters' cheek pouches at 55 mg/kg dosages. Cheek pouches were grossly examined after 12 weeks. Histometric evaluation included height measurements from the epithelium without stratum corneum, stratum corneum, and full epithelium. Clear cells frequency was compared between groups. Results were analyzed using Student's t test. The experimental group showed a lower height of the stratum corneum (p=0.035) and higher frequency of clear cells (p<0.001). There was no height difference for the epithelium without stratum corneum (p=0.677) and full epithelium (p=0.904) between groups. SCN(-) promotes no gross alterations on hamsters' cheek pouch and does not induce dysplastic features at the epithelium or inflammation at the connective tissue. The ion promotes histologic alterations on mucosa that need to be investigated in further studies.