CEB-Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Campus of Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.
CBMA (Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology), Department of Biology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.
Int J Biol Macromol. 2020 May 1;150:671-680. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2020.02.122. Epub 2020 Feb 18.
Ohmic heating is a thermal processing method based on the application of electric fields directly into a semi-conductive medium. In this study, we explored for the first time the use of ohmic heating to obtain keratin films. The properties of the films prepared by ohmic heating and conventional heating were evaluated and compared under similar thermal profiles. A lower increase in free thiols' concentration was obtained for the keratin solutions and keratin films submitted to ohmic heating (16% increase for the keratin solution extracted from virgin hair, pH 9, submitted to ohmic heating and 23% when submitted to conventional heating). Significant differences in the swelling results were observed for the films prepared with keratin extracted from virgin hair, with a swelling decrease in about 55% for the films prepared by ohmic heating. Generally, the keratin films obtained by ohmic heating showed distinct properties comparatively to the films produced by conventional methods. The application of a fusion protein on the keratin films demonstrated their capacity to be used as substitutes to hair fibers when evaluating the potential of new cosmetic products. This work suggests that ohmic heating show potential to tailor keratin films properties depending on an intended application or functionality.
欧姆加热是一种基于将电场直接应用于半导电介质的热加工方法。在这项研究中，我们首次探索了利用欧姆加热来获得角蛋白膜。在相似的热分布下，评估和比较了通过欧姆加热和常规加热制备的薄膜的性能。对于接受欧姆加热的角蛋白溶液和角蛋白膜，游离巯基浓度的增加较低（从原始头发中提取的角蛋白溶液，pH9，接受欧姆加热时增加 16%，接受常规加热时增加 23%）。对于用原始头发中提取的角蛋白制备的薄膜，观察到明显的溶胀结果差异，通过欧姆加热制备的薄膜的溶胀减少约 55%。一般来说，与通过常规方法生产的薄膜相比，通过欧姆加热获得的角蛋白薄膜具有明显不同的性质。在评估新型化妆品产品的潜在用途时，将融合蛋白应用于角蛋白薄膜上证明了它们作为头发纤维替代品的能力。这项工作表明，欧姆加热可以根据预期的应用或功能来调整角蛋白薄膜的性质。
