Individual Human Hair Keratin Extracted Through Advanced Oxidation Process and Hemostatic and Wound Healing Evaluations

    November 2023 in “ACS Applied Polymer Materials
    Jia Deng, Xun Yuan, Lian Wang, Yingjie Sun, Hao He, Zhiyi Wu, Gao Z, Jingou Ji, Bochu Wang, Shilei Hao
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    TLDR The new method extracts keratin from hair faster and better, and the resulting product improves blood clotting and wound healing, with potential for personalized treatments.
    The document presents a new method for extracting keratin from human hair using a TiO2 photocatalytic-assisted H2O2 oxidation strategy (H2O2/TiO2/UV), which is faster and yields more protein than the traditional H2O2 method. The keratin extracted using this method retains its typical chemical and secondary structures. The study also fabricated individual keratin/PCL films from the keratin of four young girls, which showed superior hemostatic performance and wound healing in vivo compared to keratin extracted via the H2O2 method. Interestingly, while the hemostatic efficiency was similar across all four keratin films, they displayed distinct wound-healing properties in terms of epidermal thickness and density of skin appendages. This suggests the potential for personalized wound healing materials.
    View this study on pubs.acs.org →