Postmortem Histological Changes of Oral Mucosal Tissue in Hypoxic and Histotoxic Death to Differentiate Cause and Manner of Death

Abstract

Abstract Cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all living organisms. In biological aspects humans though consider to be similar to other living organisms,they are unique as humans can think, imagine, and create so on.It is necessary to know the accurate cause of the death for solving many of the legal and administrative problems. In many cases cause of the death is determined by medical investigator. Aims & Objective: To study microscopic changes in oral mucosal tissue from cases of hypoxic and histotoxic death. Materials & Method: Fifteen oral mucosal tissue samples each form poisonous and hanging death were collected during autopsy. Tissues were routinely fixed, processed and stained using Haematoxylin and Eosin stain. Sections were studied and nuclear and cytoplasmic changes of epithelial cells were observed. Results: Definitive changes like prominent cytoplasmic vacuolation, in case of hanging and nuclear morphological changes in cases of poison death were observed. Conclusion: Biochemical mechanism behind cell death varies with cause of death, which in turn can be observed as morphological changes.