HLA typing of aortic tissues from unidentified bodies using hot start polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific primers.

This study investigated the identification of unidentified bodies through HLA DNA typing of aortic tissues. Eight aortas were collected at autopsy from six bodies found in water, one burnt body, and one mummified body, respectively. DNA was extracted from 10-20 mg of aortic tissue with a PUREGENE DNA Isolation Kit and phenol/chloroform. HLA (A, B, DR or DQ locus) alleles were typed using the hot start polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP) method with a Dynal AllSet(+) SSP "low resolution" kit for each locus. The aorta was still retained in degraded samples, those from the drowned, the burnt, and the mummified bodies. In each case, approximately 0.04-3.84 microg of DNA was recovered from 1 mg of fixed tissue. We typed 8/8 for the DR, 4/4 for the DQ, 3/3 for the A, and 3/3 for the B locus from the samples. Based on these results and the finding that DNA extraction is easier from the aorta than from other samples such as bone or tooth, we considered this method to be useful for forensic samples.