Immunogenicity of hair proteins containing hard keratins

Abstract

Hard keratins, which are commonly found in various tissues such as hair, nail, body hair and horn, are a valuable source of proteins for use as bio-materials, In addition, human hair is relatively easy to obtain in large quantities from specific individuals. However, little is known about the immunogenicity of hard keratins and their related proteins. We examined the antibody-producing activity against mouse hair proteins, human hair proteins, and human nail proteins, mainly consisting of hard keratins and matrix proteins using BALB/c mice. The reactivities of sera against mouse hair proteins were about 1% compared with those of sera against human hair- and nail-proteins. Immunoblot analysis also showed the species specificity and different antigenecities for keratins and matrix proteins. These results suggest that human proteins will be biocompatible materials, which will not cause rejection or allergic reactions.