Wound Age Estimation: Pro-inflammatory Cytokines versus Immuno-histochemistry

: Rationale and background: In forensic medical investigations, it is an important matter to determine whether a wound found on autopsy was inflicted before or after death and, if inflicted antemortem, how long before death it was sustained. Aim: This work was to compare the biochemical inflammatory cytokines (IL1-β and IL6) and immunohistochemical (TGF-α) techniques as tools for determining wound aging in cadavers and their relation to other factors related to the wound. Subjects and methods: Specimens of skin and subcutaneous tissue were taken from 50 cadavers with wounds other than firearms and with known postmortem intervals. They were 11 females (22%) and 39 males (78%), and their mean age was 30.3±19.88 years, with a minimum age of 4 months and a maximum of 82 years. Wound specimens were taken from every case to estimate IL1-β and IL6 by ELISA technique and evaluate TGF-α by immuno-histochemistry. Results: Significant correlations between the age of the victim and the value of both IL6 and IL1-β were reported. Moreover, no significant difference between males and females concerning the cytokines IL1-β and Cytokines IL6 was found. There was no significant correlation between the time between injury and death and both IL6 and IL1-β values, but there was a significant negative correlation between the time between death and autopsy and the value of IL1-β. However, a similar correlation was not detected concerning IL6. So, TGF-α and IL6 were independent predictors for wound age determination, while IL1-β was a dependent one. In this study, the estimation of the wound age, the time between injury and death, and the time between death and autopsy could be calculated using specific regression equations. Conclusion and recommendations: The quantitative analysis of pro-inflammatory cytokines in wound extracts can contribute to determining vitality and wound age.