Cortical cells were obtained by enzyme treatment of a variety of natural keratin fibres, then light microscopy used to measure the dimensions of the cells. Information was sought on the size range of cortical cells, and correlations, if any, between the cells' average linear dimensions and the animal species or thickness of the fibres from which the cells were obtained. Paper presented to the 83rd World Conference of the Textile Institute Animal hair fibres consist of a core of cortical cells en-closed by flattened cuticle cells. The cortical cells, usually described as "spindle shaped", consist almost entirely of keratinised protein. The cells are aligned parallel to the fibre axis and usually make up at least 80% by weight of the interior structure of a fibre. Of all types of cortical cells, those of wool fibres have been most extensively studied. Burgess (1934) showed that cortical cells could be released from wool fibres by enzymatic digestion, and subsequent work by a number of researchers culminated in publication by Blackburn (1950) of a method for producing cortical cells in good yields using the enzyme papain in the presence of the reducing agent sodium bisulphate. Recently a number of companies have marketed proteolytic enzymes capable of digesting wool fibres to release cortical cells.
展开▼
