Open Access Green as soon as Postprint is submitted to ZB.
Age determination of blood spots in forensic medicine by force spectroscopy.
Forensic Sci. Int. 170, 8-14 (2007)
We present a new tool for the estimation of the age of bloodstains, which could probably be used during forensic casework. For this, we used atomic force microscopy (AFM) for high-resolution imaging of erythrocytes in a blood sample and the detection of elasticity changes on a nanometer scale. For the analytic procedure we applied a fresh blood spot on a glass slide and started the AFM detection after drying of the blood drop. In a first step, an overview image was generated showing the presence of several red blood cells, which could easily be detected due to their typical "doughnut-like" appearance. The consecutively morphological investigations in a timeframe of 4 weeks could not show any alterations. Secondly, AFM was used to test the elasticity by recording force-distance curves. The measurements were performed immediately after drying, 1.5 h, 30 h and 31 days. The conditions were kept constant at room temperature (20 degrees C) and a humidity of 30%. The obtained elasticity parameters were plotted against a timeline and repeated several times. The elasticity pattern showed a decrease over time, which are most probably influenced by the alteration of the blood spot during the drying and coagulation process. The preliminary data demonstrates the capacity of this method to use it for development of calibration curves, which can be used for estimation of bloodstain ages during forensic investigations.
Impact Factor
Scopus SNIP
Web of Science
Times Cited
Times Cited
Scopus
Cited By
Cited By
Altmetric
1.397
0.000
76
75
Annotations
Special Publikation
Hide on homepage
Publication type
Article: Journal article
Document type
Scientific Article
Keywords
AFM; Force spectroscopy; Forensic medicine; Age determination; Blood spots
Language
english
Publication Year
2007
HGF-reported in Year
0
ISSN (print) / ISBN
0379-0738
e-ISSN
1872-6283
Journal
Forensic Science International
Quellenangaben
Volume: 170,
Issue: 1,
Pages: 8-14
Publisher
Elsevier
Reviewing status
Peer reviewed
Institute(s)
Institute of Radiation Protection (ISS)
POF-Topic(s)
30504 - Mechanisms of Genetic and Environmental Influences on Health and Disease
Research field(s)
Radiation Sciences
PSP Element(s)
G-501100-006
PubMed ID
17095174
WOS ID
000248472800002
Erfassungsdatum
2007-12-31