Human Hair Proteins as Natural Reactive Oxygen Species Scavengers for In Vitro Applications

The research paper "Human hair proteins as natural reactive oxygen species scavengers for in vitro applications" presents a study on the antioxidative potential of human hair proteins, particularly keratins. The study found that these proteins, due to their high cysteine content and the presence of other amino acids like methionine, serine, phenylalanine, and threonine, have a high radical scavenging activity. Using DPPH and H2DCFDA assays, keratins were shown to have the highest radical scavenging activity among the studied hair proteins. The study also demonstrated that human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) cultured in human hair keratin supplemented media were protected against hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress. The quenching of reactive oxygen species in the HDF was observed using the CellROX Green dye and the expression levels of antioxidant (HMOX1, SOD2, GPX1) and tumor suppressor (TP53) genes were analyzed using qPCR. This suggests the potential of hair proteins, especially keratins, as an antioxidizing supplement in vitro.