Sirin Nazan, Matzenauer Christian, Reckert Alexandra, Ritz-Timme Stefanie
Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Düsseldorf, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Int J Legal Med. 2018 Mar;132(2):623-628. doi: 10.1007/s00414-017-1667-6. Epub 2017 Aug 19.
Age estimation based on aspartic acid racemization (AAR) in dentine is one of the most precise methods in adult age. Caries induces protein degradation and may have an impact on the kinetics of AAR in dentine. We systematically examined standardized prepared dentine samples from caries-affected teeth to clarify the question, if caries-affected teeth should not be used for age estimation based on AAR at all, or if the analysis of dentine samples from such teeth may be useful after removal of the caries-affected tissue according to clinical standards. Our results suggest that caries may lead to an extensive protein degradation even in macroscopically healthy-appearing dentine samples from caries-affected teeth and may significantly affect the precision of age estimation. To ensure the quality of age estimation based on AAR in forensic practice, we recommend using dentine samples from healthy teeth. If only caries-affected teeth are available, dentine samples from at least two teeth from the same individual should be analyzed as it seems unlikely that caries-induced protein degradation occurred with identical kinetics in two different teeth. In any case, results of the analysis of caries-affected teeth must be interpreted with caution.
基于牙本质中天冬氨酸消旋化（AAR）的年龄估计是成人年龄测定中最精确的方法之一。龋齿会导致蛋白质降解，并可能影响牙本质中AAR的动力学。我们系统地检查了来自龋患牙齿的标准化制备的牙本质样本，以阐明一个问题，即龋患牙齿是否根本不应用于基于AAR的年龄估计，或者根据临床标准去除龋患组织后，对此类牙齿的牙本质样本进行分析是否有用。我们的结果表明，龋齿甚至可能导致来自龋患牙齿的外观宏观健康的牙本质样本中广泛的蛋白质降解，并可能显著影响年龄估计的精度。为确保法医实践中基于AAR的年龄估计质量，我们建议使用健康牙齿的牙本质样本。如果只有龋患牙齿可用，则应分析来自同一个体至少两颗牙齿的牙本质样本，因为两颗不同牙齿中龋齿诱导的蛋白质降解以相同动力学发生的可能性似乎不大。在任何情况下，对龋患牙齿分析的结果都必须谨慎解释。
