Sex determination from plucked human hairs without epithelial root sheath. II. Depigmentation of melanin in the hair cortex before Feulgen reaction

Abstract

In hair roots devoid of the epithelial root sheath, an attempt was made to decolorize the melanin granules without affecting the Feulgen reaction for the sex chromatin. The hair samples were treated with 0.25% potassium permanganate for 1 hour, 0.3% hydrogen peroxide for 1 minute and 5% oxalic acid for 5 minutes, and then stained with Feulgen. The frequency of sex chromatins ranged from 22% to 47% (average 32%) in female samples and from 0% to 8% (average 5%) in male samples. Thus, the frequency distributions of the male and female samples were completely independent of each other. The sex chromatins in dried female hairs were detectable at a frequency of 16 – 26% several weeks after plucking. The depigmentation procedure almost completely bleached the melanin granules in the hair cortex, and produced no harmful effect on the Feulgen reaction that followed.