A Novel Monoclonal Antibody to the Outer Root Sheath Cells

The study developed a novel monoclonal antibody, TYHF-1, which specifically recognized hair keratins, particularly a doublet of 43-44 kDa, and strongly reacted with outer root sheath cells in specific regions of hair follicles. TYHF-1 also stained cells in the inner root sheath and cuticle, as well as the tongue and nail matrix, but did not react with epidermal keratins or cells from various other tissues, such as sweat glands and several epithelial tissues. This indicated that TYHF-1 was specific to certain hair-related structures and not to general epidermal keratins.