ABSTRACT
Objective To detect nuclear DNA degradation of bone marrows and brains in rat cadavers at different temperatures,and develop a new parameter for estimating early postmortem interval(PMI).Methods The brain and bone marrow were taken out for every 4h,during 0~40h after death at 10℃ and 20℃,respectively.And the single cell gel electrophoresis(SCGE) was carried out to detect the nuclear DNA degradation.Linear regression analysis was used to assay the relationship of the comet parameter HeadDNA%,Tail Length(TL) and Olive TailMoment(TM) with PMI.Results Different decline degrees of comet HeadDNA% were found in both brain cells and bone marrow cells after death,the decline of HeadDNA% in brain cells at 20℃ was faster.Compared with degradation in marrow cells,the linear relation between degradation of brain cells and PMI was better.Conclusion with that of comet parameters TL and TM,the perfect linear relationship between HeadDNA% and PMI was also observed.Conclusion Brain tissues are more suitable for PMI estimation by detecting degradation of DNA with SCGE.The HeadDNA% is more valuable for PMI estimation than TL and TM.