Bertrand L, Doucet J, Simionovici A, Tsoucaris G, Walter P
C2RMF, UMR 171 du CNRS, 6 rue des Pyramides, F-75041 Paris cedex 01, France.
Biochim Biophys Acta. 2003 Mar 17;1620(1-3):218-24. doi: 10.1016/s0304-4165(02)00538-x.
Human hair lipids form a complex mixture of composition close to that of sebum. Part of these lipids appears in an organized state that has been studied by diffraction techniques in the literature. Nevertheless, information on the structure of these lipids remains very scarce due to their low contribution to global hair diffraction pattern. Here we show that appropriate lead treatment considerably enhances organized lipid features observed by microbeam synchrotron radiation diffraction experiments. We attribute these features to the formation of lead soaps of free fatty acids. Specific orientation of hair "lipid crystals" in planes parallel to the hair axis is clearly demonstrated. Inclusion of these lipids in the bulk of the hair shaft is shown by diffraction experiments following removal of the cuticular outermost layer of hair. Moreover, microfluorescence and diffraction experiments are consistent with part of the lipids being present as calcium soaps in native hair. We therefore consider lead fixation as a powerful tool to evaluate the lipid organization in human hair for medical, environmental and archaeological purposes, including lead poisoning.
