PMID- 28334006
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20170825
LR  - 20240214
IS  - 1932-6203 (Electronic)
IS  - 1932-6203 (Linking)
VI  - 12
IP  - 3
DP  - 2017
TI  - Assessing various Infrared (IR) microscopic imaging techniques for post-mortem 
      interval evaluation of human skeletal remains.
PG  - e0174552
LID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0174552 [doi]
LID - e0174552
AB  - Due to the influence of many environmental processes, a precise determination of 
      the post-mortem interval (PMI) of skeletal remains is known to be very 
      complicated. Although methods for the investigation of the PMI exist, there still 
      remains much room for improvement. In this study the applicability of infrared 
      (IR) microscopic imaging techniques such as reflection-, ATR- and Raman- 
      microscopic imaging for the estimation of the PMI of human skeletal remains was 
      tested. PMI specific features were identified and visualized by overlaying IR 
      imaging data with morphological tissue structures obtained using light microscopy 
      to differentiate between forensic and archaeological bone samples. ATR and 
      reflection spectra revealed that a more prominent peak at 1042 cm-1 (an indicator 
      for bone mineralization) was observable in archeological bone material when 
      compared with forensic samples. Moreover, in the case of the archaeological bone 
      material, a reduction in the levels of phospholipids, proteins, nucleic acid 
      sugars, complex carbohydrates as well as amorphous or fully hydrated sugars was 
      detectable at (reciprocal wavelengths/energies) between 3000 cm-1 to 2800 cm-1. 
      Raman spectra illustrated a similar picture with less nu2PO43-at 450 cm-1 and 
      nu4PO43- from 590 cm-1 to 584 cm-1, amide III at 1272 cm-1 and protein CH2 
      deformation at 1446 cm-1 in archeological bone material/samples/sources. A 
      semi-quantitative determination of various distributions of biomolecules by 
      chemi-maps of reflection- and ATR- methods revealed that there were less 
      carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates as well as amorphous or fully hydrated 
      sugars in archaeological samples compared with forensic bone samples. Raman- 
      microscopic imaging data showed a reduction in B-type carbonate and protein 
      alpha-helices after a PMI of 3 years. The calculated mineral content ratio and the 
      organic to mineral ratio displayed that the mineral content ratio increases, 
      while the organic to mineral ratio decreases with time. Cluster-analyses of data 
      from Raman microscopic imaging reconstructed histo-anatomical features in 
      comparison to the light microscopic image and finally, by application of 
      principal component analyses (PCA), it was possible to see a clear distinction 
      between forensic and archaeological bone samples. Hence, the spectral 
      characterization of inorganic and organic compounds by the afore mentioned 
      techniques, followed by analyses such as multivariate imaging analysis (MIAs) and 
      principal component analyses (PCA), appear to be suitable for the post mortem 
      interval (PMI) estimation of human skeletal remains.
FAU - Woess, Claudia
AU  - Woess C
AD  - Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
FAU - Unterberger, Seraphin Hubert
AU  - Unterberger SH
AD  - Material-Technology, Leopold-Franzens University Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
FAU - Roider, Clemens
AU  - Roider C
AD  - Division for Biomedical Physics, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, 
      Austria.
FAU - Ritsch-Marte, Monika
AU  - Ritsch-Marte M
AD  - Division for Biomedical Physics, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, 
      Austria.
FAU - Pemberger, Nadin
AU  - Pemberger N
AD  - Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Institute of Pharmacy, Leopold Franzens 
      University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
FAU - Cemper-Kiesslich, Jan
AU  - Cemper-Kiesslich J
AD  - Interfaculty Department of Legal Medicine, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, 
      Austria.
FAU - Hatzer-Grubwieser, Petra
AU  - Hatzer-Grubwieser P
AD  - Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
FAU - Parson, Walther
AU  - Parson W
AD  - Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
FAU - Pallua, Johannes Dominikus
AU  - Pallua JD
AD  - Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
AD  - Department of Pathology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
LA  - eng
GR  - P 22880/FWF_/Austrian Science Fund FWF/Austria
PT  - Evaluation Study
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20170323
PL  - United States
TA  - PLoS One
JT  - PloS one
JID - 101285081
SB  - IM
MH  - Autopsy/*methods
MH  - *Body Remains
MH  - Humans
MH  - Microscopy/*methods
MH  - Spectrum Analysis, Raman/*methods
PMC - PMC5363948
COIS- Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
EDAT- 2017/03/24 06:00
MHDA- 2017/08/26 06:00
PMCR- 2017/03/23
CRDT- 2017/03/24 06:00
PHST- 2016/07/04 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2017/03/11 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2017/03/24 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2017/03/24 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2017/08/26 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2017/03/23 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - PONE-D-16-20732 [pii]
AID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0174552 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - PLoS One. 2017 Mar 23;12(3):e0174552. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174552. 
      eCollection 2017.