Many animal models were specifically developed for safety prediction of numerous (human) consumer products, including medicines. These models are often regarded with skepticism due the well known distance between human and animal skin. Also, restriction to the use of animal for scientific purposes prudently limited developments in these directions, rather pointing to alternative methods. However, refinement is still admissible, eg using rodents instead of nonrodents, specially if data relevance and animal distress reduction are objective outcomes. Skin healing is a complex issue where animal models are an additional resource often used in basic studies (eg in trauma pathophysiology) involving,highly aggressive procedures that limit its application. Authors developed a micromodel in rats to study recovery of cutaneous “barrier” following controlled impairment. The model uses a contact challenger – sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) whose toxicology in human skin is well known, especially when applied at low concentrations. It does not cause any relevant histological changes, but evokes inflammation, edema and barrier impairment. This study was developed in Wistar rats (n=10, mean weigh – 250g) and aimed to establish the minimal concentration of topically applied SLS able to evoke barrier impairment. Four contralateral areas (2cm2) were marked in the animal dorsum, 2 in each side of the median line, after mechanical removal of the hair (24hours before testing, with a razor). Rats were previously sedated with inhaled ether for 15-30min to avoid additional stressing stimulus. Patches with different SLS solution (0,5; 1; 2 % v/v) were randomly applied for 24h, 1 site serving as control. After 24hours, patches were removed and variables measured. For this purpose, rats were previously sedated with inhaled ethyl ether using a 2,5g cotton wool impregnated with 7ml of the anesthetic, in a glass goblet set for inhalation. Animals were kept in stages II and III for 15-30min, time needed to perform measurements without additional stressing stimulus. No pain or other distress are associated to the procedure which included clinical (visual scoring scale) and biometrical assessments by non-invasive technologies such as transepidermal water loss (TEWL) (Tewameter TM300 CK electronics, Germany), expressed in g/h.m2; erythema (Chromameter® CR 300, Minolta, Japan), expressed in arbitrary units, and local microcirculation by laser doppler flowmetry (LDF – Periflux® PF5010, Perimed, Sweden), expressed in arbitrary units of perfusion. Measurements took place under controlled room conditions as recommended (22 ± 2°C at 40-50% humidity), before patching (T0) 1hour (T1a) 24hours (T1b) and daily (Tx) after patch removal until full recovery of TEWL used as the statistical end-point. Statistical comparisons between groups were performed using SPSS 17.0 and a confidence level of 95% adopted. Results suggest a very good correlation with previously published data from human skin, justifying to further explore the application of this model to other domains such as comparative patch and dressings efficacy.