New aspects of the structure of human hair on the basis of optical microscopic observations of disassembled hair parts by SCC

Asao Yamauchi , Kiyoshi Yamauchi

Abstract

Infant’ and adult’ scalp hair fibers were disassembled to various cellular components and blocks by chemical and enzymatic treatments, followed by random scission with rapidly rotating cutters.

The hair fibers were also fractured by the use of a vise. The optical microscopic inspection of these specimens led to the discovery of many previously unknown structures in the hair shaft.

In particular, a cuticular cell (Cu) was found to take a trowel-like shape consisting of a part with a blade-like shape (CuB) and a part with a handle-like shape (CuH), where CuB overlapped one another and fused partially to build the honeycomb-like structure on a large cuticular thin plate (CuP).

Whereas CuH was closely similar to the cortical cell in dimensions and richness of macrofibrils (Mf). It was considered that human hair is stabilized structurally and physicochemically by the presence of the honeycomb-like structure, the CuP and the Mf.

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