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Int J Legal Med (2011) 125:603608 DOI 10.1007/s00414-010-0528-3
TECHNICAL NOTE
Detection and quantification of the age-related sjTREC decline in human peripheral blood
Xueling Ou & Hu Zhao & Hongyu Sun & Zhengfei Yang &
Bailu Xie & Yanwei Shi & Xinyao Wu
Received: 2 August 2010 /Accepted: 22 October 2010 /Published online: 25 November 2010 # Springer-Verlag 2010
Abstract The decline of signal joint T-cell receptor rearrangement excision circles (sjTRECs) in human peripheral blood has been demonstrated to be age-related, which can be a potential marker for individual age determination. However, little is known about the quantitative relationship between the levels of sjTREC and age. The aim of the present study was to investigate the levels of sjTREC in peripheral blood leukocytes (PBLs) among different age groups in Chinese population, so as to clarify whether it could serve as a suitable marker for biological age estimation in forensic practice. sjTREC levels were measured by real-time quantitative PCR analysis in peripheral blood samples from individuals of known age (n=248). The quantification results showed that sjTREC declined in human PBLs in an age-dependent manner (r=0.8177,
P<0.01). The formula for age estimation based on
peripheral sjTREC decline was Y=24.921x39.93210.47 (Y age, year; X log sjTREC/TBP; 10.47: standard error). Furthermore, there was no difference between males and females with regard to sjTREC levels. These results suggest that assessment of sjTREC in PBLs might be a valuable additional tool in age determination, especially in cases where traditional morphologic information is absent or inefficient in forensic practice.
Keywords Real-time quantitative PCR (RQ-PCR) . Signal joint T-cell receptor excision DNA circles (sjTRECs) . Age . Sex . Chinese population
Introduction
In forensic practice, when forensic samples such as blood samples cannot provide enough morphologic information, useful information on age diagnostics can be made with the assistance of methods based on molecular biology. A variety of biological indicators, such as the telomere DNA restriction fragment (TRF) length [1, 2], and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) 4,977 bp fragment deletion degree [3], have been indicated to be closely related to individual age and aging, which may be effective markers for the forensic age determination. However, most of these studies are still in the early stage due to obstacles including the interferences of the environmental, genetic...