Abstract
Background and objectives: Post-mortem interval (PMI) estimation is an important topic in forensic sciences. Several methods have been used to determine the PMI, but most of these provide inaccurate results under certain conditions. The degradation of RNA after death has been reported to be a useful tool for PMI estimation. This study aimed to evaluate the potential use of skin and heart GAPDH mRNA levels for determining the PMI under different environmental conditions.
Methods: Seventy-eight adult female albino rats were sacrificed by cervical dislocation. Then, rats divided into the control group and four experimental groups left under different conditions (in ambient air at 30 degrees C and at 6 degrees C, buried in sand and submerged under water at an air temperature of 30 degrees C). The skin and heart samples were obtained at different time points (0, 24, 48, and 96 h post-mortem), and the GAPDH mRNA level in each sample was detected by qRT-PCR.
Results: The GAPDH mRNA levels decreased with increasing PMI in all study groups. There were significant negative correlations between the heart GAPDH mRNA level and the time interval in all studied groups, while the skin GAPDH mRNA level only showed negative correlations under certain conditions.
Conclusion: The GAPDH mRNA level in rat heart and skin could be a useful marker for PMI estimation under various environmental conditions.