Development of high-performance two-dimensional gel electrophoresis for human hair shaft proteome

PLoS One. 2019 Mar 19;14(3):e0213947. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213947. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

The primary components of human hair shaft-keratin and keratin-associated proteins (KAPs), together with their cross-linked networks-are the underlying reason for its rigid structure. It is therefore requisite to overcome the obstacle of hair insolubility and establish a reliable protocol for the proteome analysis of this accessible specimen. The present study employed an alkaline-based method for the efficient isolation of hair proteins and subsequently examined them using gel-based proteomics. The introduction of two proteomic protocols, namely the conventional and modified protocol, have resulted in the detection of more than 400 protein spots on the two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE). When compared, the modified protocol is deemed to improve overall reproducibility, whilst offering a quick overview of the total protein distribution of hair. The development of this high-performance protocol is hoped to provide a new approach for hair analysis, which could possibly lead to the discovery of biomarkers for hair in health and diseases in the future.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional / methods*
  • Hair / chemistry*
  • Humans
  • Keratins / analysis
  • Keratins / isolation & purification
  • Proteome / analysis*
  • Proteome / isolation & purification
  • Proteomics / methods*
  • Proteomics / statistics & numerical data
  • Reproducibility of Results

Substances

  • Proteome
  • Keratins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Tokyo Institute of Technology and Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research C 25462831 and 16K11421 from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.