TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2012//
TI  - Intrapulmonary aquaporin-5 expression as a possible biomarker for discriminating smothering and choking from sudden cardiac death: A pilot study
JO  - Forensic science international
A1  - Wang, Qi
A1  - Ishikawa, Takaki
A1  - Michiue, Tomomi
A1  - Zhu, Bao-Li
A1  - Guan, Da-Wei
A1  - Maeda, Hitoshi
SP  - 154
EP  - 157
VL  - 220
IS  - 1-3
N2  - The diagnosis of mechanical asphyxia as a cause of death, especially smothering and choking lacking evident injury, is one of the most difficult tasks in forensic pathology. The present study investigated the intrapulmonary expressions of aquaporins (AQPs; AQP-1 and AQP-5), as markers of water homeostasis, in forensic autopsy cases (total n=64, within 48h postmortem) of mechanical asphyxiation due to neck compression (strangulation, n=24), including manual/ligature strangulation (n=12) and atypical hanging (n=12), smothering (n=7) and choking (n=8), compared with sudden cardiac death (n=14) and acute brain injury (n=11). Quantification of mRNA using a Taqman real-time PCR assay system demonstrated suppressed expression of AQP-5, but not AQP-1, in smothering and choking, compared with that in strangulation as well as sudden cardiac death and acute brain injury death. Immunostaining of AQP-5 was weakly detected in a linear pattern in the type I alveolar epithelial cells in smothering and choking cases, while cardiac and brain injury death showed marked positivity, and most strangulation cases had AQP-5-positive granular aggregates and fragments in intra-alveolar spaces. These observations indicate a partial difference in pulmonary molecular pathology among these causes of death, suggesting a procedure for possible discrimination of smothering and choking from sudden cardiac death.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0379-0738
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2012.02.013
ID  - ref1
ER  -