验尸间隔(PMI)的估计在法医程序中至关重要。最常用的方法,然而,都被限制在特定的时间段内,或者在某些情况下必须被排除在外。在过去的几年中,已经表明,肌肉蛋白质降解的分析有可能在实践中有助于根据划界。特别是,根据生化分析,降解事件的具体时间点为PMI定界提供了合理的标记。然而,还需要大量的研究来增加对蛋白质分解的理解,以及它是如何受到个体和环境影响因素的影响。这最好在标准化条件下进行调查,然而,一个体贴的代理选择,关于成本,努力,和预期的结果是必要的。这里,我们用猪来比较肌肉蛋白质分解在整个身体和肢解的身体部分(截肢后肢)。不仅在身体部位进行实验,降低成本,而且在基础研究中更容易处理,而且它们还有助于研究PMI估计在肢解身体部位中的实际应用,或其他广泛的伤害,在犯罪调查中并不罕见。具体来说,我们调查了所选肌肉蛋白的降解速率是否存在差异,从肢解的腿和附着在整个猪体上的后肢取样。我们的结果以可预测的方式显示了肌肉蛋白质的不同时间依赖性降解模式,而与样品来源无关。我们能够证明截肢后肢是分析肌肉蛋白质降解的合适代理,特别是调查某些影响因素并建立相应的标准化模型。
The estimation of the postmortem interval (PMI) is of critical importance in forensic routine. The most frequently applied methods, however, are all restricted to specific time periods or must be excluded under certain circumstances. In the last years it has been shown that the analysis of muscle protein degradation has the potential to contribute to according delimitations in practice. In particular, upon biochemical analysis, the specific time points of degradation events provide reasonable markers for PMI delimitation. Nevertheless, considerable research is yet required to increase the understanding of protein decomposition and how it is affected by individual and environmental influencing factors. This is best investigated under standardized conditions, however, a considerate selection of proxies, regarding costs, effort, and expected outcome is required. Here, we use pigs to compare muscle protein decomposition in whole bodies and dismembered body parts (amputated hind limbs). Not only do experiments on body parts reduce the costs and allow easier handling in basic research, but also they aid to investigate the practical application of PMI estimation in dismembered body parts, or other extensive injuries, which are not unusual scenarios in crime investigation. Specifically, we investigated whether there are differences in the degradation rates of selected muscle proteins, sampled from dismembered legs and from hind limbs attached to whole pig bodies. Our results show distinct time-dependent degradation patterns of muscle proteins in a predictable manner regardless of sample origin. We are able to demonstrate that amputated hind limbs are suitable proxies for the analysis of muscle protein degradation, especially to investigate certain influencing factors and establish according standardized models.