Abstract
With the increase of globalization and migration, the topic of age estimation has become more and more important in diverse fields of application, especially for age estimation in living individuals as well as for age estimation in the identification of unknown deceased and of unknown donors of a trace. Especially in the last decade, the traditional spectrum of morphological methods has been expanded to numerous new approaches based on the use of age-dependent molecular changes. Articles in this field have been and are being published in quick succession but not all approaches can (already) meet the demands of forensic practice. It may be a challenge for the forensic practitioner to keep track of suitable methods and to find the optimal method for a single case with its specific questions, conditions and requirements. This overview is intended to provide orientation on the question of which molecular approaches can already be used or will be applicable in the foreseeable future in different application fields. The focus is on the accumulation of D‑aspartic acid and pentosidine, DNA methylation and the use of the bomb pulse-derived carbon-14 (14C).
Zusammenfassung
Mit Zunahme von Globalisierung und Migration hat das Thema Lebensaltersschätzung in den forensischen Wissenschaften mehr und mehr an Bedeutung gewonnen (bei Lebenden als auch bei nicht identifizierten Leichen oder im Zuge der Identifizierung eines unbekannten Spurenverursachers). Das traditionelle Spektrum morphologischer Methoden wurde insbesondere im letzten Jahrzehnt um zahlreiche neue Ansätze erweitert, die auf der Nutzung altersabhängiger molekularer Veränderungen basieren. In rascher Folge wurden und werden Beiträge in diesem Feld publiziert – aber nicht alle Ansätze können die Anforderungen der forensischen Praxis (bereits) erfüllen. Für den forensischen Praktiker kann es zur Herausforderung werden, die Übersicht über geeignete Methoden zu behalten und die optimale Methode für den konkreten Einzelfall mit seinen spezifischen Fragestellungen, Bedingungen und Voraussetzungen zu finden. Diese Übersicht will Orientierung zu der Frage geben, welche molekularen Ansätze unter welcher Fragestellung bereits einsetzbar sind oder in absehbarer Zeit einsetzbar sein werden. Im Fokus stehen dabei die Akkumulation von D‑Asparaginsäure und Pentosidin, die DNA-Methylierung und die Nutzung des bei Atombombenversuchen freigesetzten Radiocarbons (14C).
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P. Boehme, A. Reckert, J. Becker and S. Ritz-Timme declare that they have no competing interests.
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Böhme, P., Reckert, A., Becker, J. et al. Molecular methods for age estimation. Rechtsmedizin 31, 177–182 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00194-021-00490-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00194-021-00490-9