Takayasu T, Ohshima T, Tanaka N, Maeda H, Kondo T, Nishigami J, Nagano T
Department of Legal Medicine, Kanazawa University School of Medicine, Japan.
Forensic Sci Int. 1995 Dec 18;76(2):129-40. doi: 10.1016/0379-0738(95)01807-7.
Deuterium-labeled ethanol-d6 was employed to study the metabolism and postmortem change of ethanol in putrefied organ tissues. First, 4 ml/kg body weight of 25% (w/v) solution of ethanol-d6 was administered orally to each of 15 rats. The heart blood and organs were collected 15-90 min after the administration and the ethanol-d6 was analyzed by head space gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The ethanol-d6 concentration in the organ tissues reached its maximum at 15 min after the administration and then gradually declined, showing the same pattern as human ethanol metabolism. Ethanol-d6 (3 ml of the same solution/kg body weight) was injected into the vein of a rabbit's ear (total of 12 rabbits). The rabbit was killed with carbon monoxide 30 min after the administration and the carcass was allowed to stand for 1-4 days at 30 degrees C in a moist chamber. The concentration of ethanol-d6 decreased moderately. Postmortem ethanol and 1-propanol concentrations, in contrast, showed marked increases 2.5 days and more after sacrifice in line with the degree of putrefaction of each organ tissue including skeletal muscle. This suggests the postmortem activation of micro-organism activity. These results indicate that ethanol concentrations in cadaver tissues must be carefully assessed with due consideration of postmortem degradation and production.
氘标记的乙醇-d6被用于研究乙醇在腐败器官组织中的代谢及死后变化。首先，给15只大鼠每只口服4 ml/kg体重的25%（w/v）乙醇-d6溶液。给药后15 - 90分钟收集心脏血液和器官，并通过顶空气相色谱/质谱法分析乙醇-d6。给药后15分钟时器官组织中的乙醇-d6浓度达到最高，随后逐渐下降，呈现出与人体乙醇代谢相同的模式。将乙醇-d6（3 ml相同溶液/kg体重）注入兔耳静脉（共12只兔子）。给药后30分钟用一氧化碳处死兔子，并将尸体在30℃的潮湿环境中放置1 - 4天。乙醇-d6的浓度适度降低。相比之下，死后乙醇和1-丙醇的浓度在处死2.5天及更长时间后随着包括骨骼肌在内的各器官组织的腐败程度而显著增加。这表明微生物活动在死后被激活。这些结果表明，在评估尸体组织中的乙醇浓度时，必须充分考虑死后的降解和生成情况。
