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Fibre Ultrastructure

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The Hair Fibre: Proteins, Structure and Development

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 1054))

Abstract

Mammalian hair fibres can be structurally divided into three main components: a cuticle, cortex and sometimes a medulla. The cuticle consists of a thin layer of overlapping cells on the surface of the fibre, constituting around 10% of the total fibre weight. The cortex makes up the remaining 86–90% and is made up of axially aligned spindle-shaped cells of which three major types have been recognised in wool: ortho, meso and para. Cortical cells are packed full of macrofibril bundles, which are a composite of aligned intermediate filaments embedded in an amorphous matrix. The spacing and three-dimensional arrangement of the intermediate filaments vary with cell type. The medulla consists of a continuous or discontinuous column of horizontal spaces in the centre of the cortex that becomes more prevalent as the fibre diameter increases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. AgResearch Ltd., Lincoln, New Zealand

    Jeffrey E. Plowman & Duane P. Harland

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  1. Jeffrey E. Plowman
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  2. Duane P. Harland
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Correspondence to Jeffrey E. Plowman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. AgResearch Ltd., Lincoln, New Zealand

    Jeffrey E. Plowman

  2. AgResearch Ltd., Lincoln, New Zealand

    Duane P. Harland

  3. AgResearch Ltd., Lincoln, New Zealand

    Santanu Deb-Choudhury

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Plowman, J.E., Harland, D.P. (2018). Fibre Ultrastructure. In: Plowman, J., Harland, D., Deb-Choudhury, S. (eds) The Hair Fibre: Proteins, Structure and Development. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1054. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8195-8_1

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