Postmortem stability of some markers of intra-vital wounds

Abstract

We have studied the diagnostic value of several markers of the intra-vital nature of wounds — cathepsin D (EC 3.4.23.5) and ions (Ca, Mg, Cu, Zn and Fe) — after the influence of putrefaction. For this purpose, we have inflicted vital wounds to six pigs, which were killed 20 min later. Ten minutes after death, wounds were excised with 5–6 cm of skin around the incision and maintained at three different temperatures (4, 18 and 28.5 ± 13.4°C). After varying periods of postmortem interval from 0 to 48 h, aliquots of each wound were taken and analyzed with atomic absorption spectrophotometry for ions and with UV-spectrophotometry for cathepsin D. Our results demonstrate that ions conserve their diagnostic ability to differentiate vital from postmortem wounds after the influence of putrefaction. Nevertheless, cathepsin D does not show this ability in these experimental conditions.