A preliminary molecular study on protein profile of vital organs: A new direction for post mortem interval determination.

ABSTRACT

Estimation of the postmortem interval (PMI) is one of the most important tasks in Forensic Medicine. Six autopsy organ tissues such as brain, lungs, heart, liver, pancreas and kidney were taken at the time of forensic autopsy. All the proteins present in the tissues were extracted and the protein profile was analyzed on the sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) starting from 0 day to 10th day after death. The protein profiles showed a consistent degradation pattern which was consistent and reproducible in all the samples with respect to the time interval. In conclusion, the protein profile of the vital body organs appears to be a useful method for estimating the post mortem interval up to 10th day. Advantage of this approach over others is that it can detect the post mortem interval over a long interval (0 - 10 days) with an easily detectable pattern of protein profile.