Immunological method for the identification of animal hair fibres

A new approach to the objective identification of the different animal hair fibres based on the application of monoclonal antibodies has been discussed. Three different extraction methods including metabisulphite/urea, dithiothreitol/urea, thiourea/urea/dithiothreitol were compared to evaluate efficiency and repeatability in extracting keratin from wool and cashmere fibres.