2012 Volume 12 Issue 1 Pages 32-43
We analyzed hair lipids focusing on sphingolipids of murine hair. Murine hair contains ceramides (Cer), glucosylceramides (GlcCer) and sphingomyelins (SM). Composition and structure of murine hair sphingolipids are different from those of epidermal sphingolipids. Cer of murine hair has little acylCer, which is a key molecule of the epidermal barrier, and a small amount of Cer with -hydroxy acids (OH) which are rich in the epidermis. The major molecule of murine hair Cer was C20:0/d18:0. Both whole hairs (including follicles) and hair shafts have GlcCer but little or no acylGlcCer. The major FA of hair GlcCer were C18 molecules. GlcCer carrying long chain OHFA (chain length more than 20) were detected in whole hairs, whereas these OHGlcCer were rarely in the shaft. Whole hairs have SM, but hair shafts have little SM, indicating that SM is a component of hair follicular cells in the wild mice. The major FA of hair SM were C16:0, C18:0, C24:0 and C16h:0. In hairs, the metabolic pathways and functions of Cer, GlcCer and SM may be different from each other.
