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Updated: Aug 23, 2025

A Noninvasive Hair Sampling Technique to Obtain High Quality DNA from Elusive Small Mammals
Published on: March 13, 2011
[Distinguishing human characteristics based on hair metabolomics and proteomics: a review]
Xiaolin Wu1,2, Ping Xu1,2,3, Yali Zhang1
1School of Medicine, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, Guizhou, China.
Abstract:
Human hair, a kind of natural fiber mainly composed of keratin and keratin-associated proteins, is a good biological sample that can be used to characterize the status of the body in a certain period of time. It is of highly importance in the detection of drugs, alcohol and stimulants because of the advantages of low cost, easy collection, easy transportation and storage. Proteomics is an emerging technology widely used in the field of life sciences to study protein expression and regulation at the holistic level. Investigating the composition and dynamic changes of hair proteins in different populations would have great potential in finding disease markers and distinguishing personal traits. In this paper, the structure and composition of hair, the changes of hair composition under psychological stress, and the research progress of hair proteomics were comprehensively reviewed. This will help using hair proteomics to identify body characteristics.
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