Elliott Simon, Lowe Pauline, Symonds Amanda
Regional Laboratory for Toxicology, City Hospital, Dudley Road, Birmingham B18 7QH, UK.
Forensic Sci Int. 2004 Jan 28;139(2-3):183-90. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2003.10.018.
In recent years, the post-mortem production of the drug of abuse gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in biological fluids (e.g. blood and urine) has caused various interpretative problems for toxicologists. Previously, other researchers have shown certain microbial species (Pseudomonas spp. and Clostridium aminobutyricum) possess the necessary enzymes to convert GABA to GHB. A preliminary investigation involving putrefied post-mortem blood indicated there was no observed relationship between "endogenous" GHB concentrations and concentrations of common putrefactive markers (tryptamine and phenyl-2-ethylamine). Microbiological analysis identified the presence of various micro-organisms: Clostridia spp., Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Enterococcus faecalis and Aeromonoas spp. Equine plasma, human blood and urine samples were inoculated with these and an additional micro-organism (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and incubated at 22 degrees C for 1 month. Following comparison with control samples and pre-inoculation concentrations, the data indicated an apparent production of GHB in unpreserved P. aeruginosa inoculated blood (2.3 mg/l). All other fluoride-preserved and unpreserved samples (including controls) had GHB concentrations <1mg/l. Although this concentration is lower than is typically associated with "endogenous" post-mortem GHB concentrations, this paper proposes a potential microbial production of GHB with time.
近年来，生物体液（如血液和尿液）中死后产生滥用药物γ-羟基丁酸（GHB）给毒理学家带来了各种解释性问题。此前，其他研究人员已表明某些微生物物种（假单胞菌属和氨基丁酸梭菌）拥有将γ-氨基丁酸（GABA）转化为GHB所需的酶。一项涉及腐败死后血液的初步调查表明，“内源性”GHB浓度与常见腐败标志物（色胺和苯乙胺）的浓度之间未观察到相关性。微生物学分析确定存在多种微生物：梭菌属、大肠杆菌、普通变形杆菌、粪肠球菌和气单胞菌属。将这些微生物以及另一种微生物（铜绿假单胞菌）接种到马血浆、人血液和尿液样本中，并在22摄氏度下孵育1个月。与对照样本和接种前浓度进行比较后，数据表明在未保存的接种铜绿假单胞菌的血液中明显产生了GHB（2.3毫克/升）。所有其他用氟化物保存和未保存的样本（包括对照）的GHB浓度均<1毫克/升。尽管该浓度低于通常与“内源性”死后GHB浓度相关的水平，但本文提出随着时间推移GHB可能由微生物产生。
