Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology – Measuring or testing process involving enzymes or... – Involving hydrolase
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-30
2004-05-04
Gitomer, Ralph (Department: 1623)
Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology
Measuring or testing process involving enzymes or...
Involving hydrolase
C435S004000, C435S018000, C435S024000, C436S164000, C436S166000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06730493
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for assessing and determining the condition of keratin-containing materials, particularly the condition of hair, with existing structural damage caused by external factors such as the environment, weathering, natural aging, physical or chemical noxae or cosmetic treatments, to agents and devices that are appropriate therefor and to the use thereof.
2. Related Art
Keratin-containing materials including the skin and skin appendages, for example hair, nails, feathers and hoofs, are subject to a multitude of natural and unnatural physical and chemical influences. These include energy-rich radiation (for example UV light), weather conditions or weathering (for example temperature, air humidity or air composition), cosmetic treatments, for example hair bleaching, permanent wave treatments, coloring or enameling. Such influences manifest themselves in varying degrees of structural modifications of these materials leading to a possible change in their chemical and physical properties. In the case of, for example, hair, this can result in a loss of gloss, suppleness, hold or combability. In addition, the brittleness and splitting of hair increases. The degree of damage increases with the frequency and duration of exposure to the influencing parameters.
For an effective use of hair-care, hair-conditioning or hair-restructuring agents it is necessary not only to recognize the current condition of the hair with reliability but, in particular, to make a correct selection of the agents for permanent waving, coloring and bleaching of hair that are adapted to a particular hair structure. This, however, requires a reliable determination of the degree of hair damage. The hair condition can be determined either visually or in tactile manner by subjective evaluation of, for example, gloss, brittleness, coarseness or the appearance of splitting, or this can be done by use of objective measuring methods.
The method of subjective assessment of hair condition or hair damage is fast and simple. The recognition of incipient and advanced structural changes (hair damage) based on subjective parameters, however, leads to highly erratic or unusable results either because of a lack of experience in assessing the hair condition or hair damage or else owing to masking of the damage by hair-care agents.
Numerous methods are known for objective examination of keratin-containing materials for the purpose of detecting any damage that may be present. An example is the determination of the cysteine content by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). This method has the drawback that it requires comprehensive laboratory studies which are time-consuming and costly. Hence, this method is not practicable for daily use, and particularly not for hair-dressers or beauticians.
It is also known (for example, from EP-A 0 702 232) to determine hair damage by use of anionic dyes.
This method, however, provides insufficient information about the structural condition of hair. Other known methods consist of determining the elongation factor of hair or the degree of copper absorption of the damaged hair. Such methods are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,461,925 and 4,665,741. These methods are nonspecific and can give false-positive or false-negative results. Moreover, they are time-consuming and require costly equipment.
Because, on the one hand, a reliable recognition and evaluation of existing damage to keratin-containing materials is indispensable for effective and logical cosmetic treatment and, on the other, no practicable rapid test methods for this purpose, and no devices or agents suitable for carrying out such a method, are known, a great need exists for a rapid test and for devices and agents suitable for such a test.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the prior art and to provide a reliable method for recognizing and evaluating damage conditions in keratin-containing materials, particularly hair, and devices and agents needed for said method.
This objective was reached within the scope of the claims presented herein.
Surprisingly, we have now found that keratin-containing material, for example hair, damaged to different degrees reacts differently to enzymatic and/or chemical treatment in aqueous solution and that the liquid sample shows different degrees of turbidity depending on the degree of damage to the keratin-containing material.
Hence, one aspect of the present invention is a method for recognizing and determining the condition of a keratin-containing material, said method consisting of subjecting a sample of keratin-containing material, for example a sample of hair, in aqueous solution to enzymatic and/or chemical treatment and then examining, evaluating and determining the condition of the hair on the basis of the turbidity of the resulting aqueous solution. The condition of the hair can readily be determined with the aid of a comparative value (zero value or standard value). The comparative value can be obtained by subjecting the same amount of healthy hair to enzymatic and/or chemical treatment under the same conditions as those used for the hair test sample and determining the turbidity of the resulting liquid sample.
By the expression “determining the condition of keratin-containing materials” is meant, in particular, the determination of possible or expected damage to the material involved. In the following, the aqueous solution obtained after the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment of a sample of keratin-containing material, for example a hair sample, will be referred to as the “liquid sample”.
The method of the invention combines a number of advantages. It represents a rapid test for determining the condition of keratin-containing materials which in a very short time provides reliable information concerning the current condition of keratin-containing materials permitting a diagnosis of said condition. The method affords reproducible results enabling the user to follow changes in the condition of the keratin-containing material over a longer period of time on the basis of objective criteria and to prepare a data file therefor.
The method of the invention can be applied particularly advantageously in the area od hair care or hair cosmetics. For the user and particularly the hair-dresser, this also opens up the possibility of flexible and individual cosmetic hair treatment aiming at causal hair care. The method permits optical or visual examination of the liquid sample and, hence, is simple to carry out. The agents and devices needed to this end are easy to handle. Because of the high reproducibility and possibility of carrying out a differentiated examination of the condition or degree of damage in keratin-containing materials combined with the ease of handling, the method of the invention and the devices and agents of the invention that are appropriate therefor represent an ideal solution for fast evaluation of hair quality in particular.
All enzymatic and/or chemical procedures can be used for the method of the invention as long as they bring about a proteolytic or hydrolytic decomposition of hair. Hence, the method of the invention comprises enzymatic and/or chemical treatment of a sample of keratin-containing material (for example a hair sample) based on a proteolytic or hydrolytic reaction. Suitable to this end are purely enzymatic treatments, purely chemical treatments or combined enzymatic/chemical treatments of the materials to be examined.
As for enzymatic methods, suitable are all enzymes from the group of proteases and proteinases (exo- and endopeptidases or exo- and endoproteases and mixtures thereof) known for this purpose and which are capable of catalyzing the degradation of keratin-containing material, at least one enzyme for the enzymatic (or enzymatic/chemical) treatment being present in the aqueous solution involved. The enzymes can be used alone or as a mixture. They include, for example, papain, pronase E, proteinase K, subtilisin
Feldbruegge Rainer
Haalck Lutz
Schwan-Jonczyk Annette
Uensal Ceylan
Chaudhry Mahreen
Gitomer Ralph
Striker Michael J.
Wella Aktiengesellschaft
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