Abstract
Human hair is laminar-fibrous tissue and an evolutionarily old keratinization product of follicle trichocytes. Studies on the hair proteome can give new insights into hair function and lead to the development of novel biomarkers for hair in health and disease. Human hair proteins were extracted by detergent and detergent-free techniques. We adopted a shotgun proteomics approach, which demonstrated a large extractability and variety of hair proteins after detergent extraction. We found an enrichment of keratin, keratin-associated proteins (KAPs), and intermediate filament proteins, which were part of protein networks associated with response to stress, innate immunity, epidermis development, and the hair cycle. Our analysis also revealed a significant deamidation of keratin type I and II, and KAPs. The hair shafts were found to contain several types of histones, which are well known to exert antimicrobial activity. Analysis of the hair proteome, particularly its composition, protein abundances, deamidated hair proteins, and modification sites, may offer a novel approach to explore potential biomarkers of hair health quality, hair diseases, and aging.
Highlights
Much interest has recently been drawn to hair follicle interactions with growth factors, cytokines, neuropeptides, neurotransmitters, hormones, and their roles as a source of stem cells
We extracted hair proteins using urea buffer or methods based on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) detergent defined as SDS extraction (SDSI) and SDSII
The effects of the protein extraction techniques on the overall morphology of human hair shaft samples were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM)
Summary
Much interest has recently been drawn to hair follicle interactions with growth factors, cytokines, neuropeptides, neurotransmitters, hormones, and their roles as a source of stem cells. Hair keratins are very sturdy and extremely difficult to solubilize, and it remains technically challenging to identify and quantify these proteins accurately Overcoming these technical challenges is vital for understanding the abundances. Similar protein extraction efficacy of human hair samples was achieved by microwave-assisted extraction[10] These methods focused on the protein extraction yield and not the protein identification from a qualitative and quantitative perspective. We focused on the morphological changes, protein abundance profiles, identification of DPMs (including deamidation), and characterization of proteins and peptides. Some of these proteins and peptides could provide possible antimicrobial functions, while others serve as interesting biomarkers for hair in health and disease
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