Chemical leukoderma is a patchy hypopigmentation in the skin. Phenol derivatives such as raspberry ketone have been reported to cause the development of occupationally induced leukoderma. Recently, 2% (w/w) rhododenol, a reduced form of raspberry ketone used in a skin-lightning agent, also caused the development of leukoderma in >16,000 users, about 2% of all users, in Asian countries including Japan. However, a method for assessing the risk of leukoderma caused by 2% rhododenol has not been established despite the fact that the development of leukoderma caused by 30% rhododenol was previously shown in animal experiments. Establishment of a novel technique for risk assessment of leukoderma in humans caused by external treatment with chemicals is needed to prevent a possible future chemical disaster. This study demonstrated that external treatment with 2% rhododenol and the same concentration of raspberry ketone caused the development of leukoderma in murine tail skin without exception with significant decreases in the amount of melanin and number of melanocytes in the epidermis. Thus, a novel in vivo technique that can assess the risk of leukoderma caused by 2% rhododenol was developed. The unique technique using tail skin has the potential to prevent chemical leukoderma in the future.

化学性白斑病是皮肤中的斑块状色素沉着不足。据报道，酚衍生物如覆盆子酮会引起职业性白斑病的发展。最近，在皮肤白化剂中使用的2％（w / w）的杜鹃醇（一种覆盆子酮的还原形式）也导致白斑病的发展，在包括日本在内的亚洲国家中，有16,000多个使用者使用了白斑病，约占所有使用者的2％。然而，尽管先前已经在动物实验中显示了由30％的杜鹃醇引起的白斑病的发展，但尚未建立评估由2％的杜鹃醇引起的白斑病风险的方法。为了防止将来可能发生的化学灾难，需要建立一种新的技术来评估因使用化学药品进行外部治疗而导致的人类白内障风险。这项研究表明，用2％杜鹃花醇和相同浓度的树莓酮进行外部处理会导致鼠尾巴皮肤白细胞的形成，无一例外，表皮中黑色素的数量和黑色素细胞的数量显着减少。因此，一部小说开发了一种可以评估由2％杜鹃花醇引起的白皮病风险的体内技术。使用尾巴皮肤的独特技术有可能在将来预防化学性白斑病。