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Influence of immunologic status on age prediction using signal joint T cell receptor excision circles

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Abstract

Age estimation based on quantifying signal joint T cell receptor excision circle (sjTREC) in T cells has been established to be a promising approach in forensic practice and demonstrated in different ethnic groups. Considering that the homeostasis of T cells carrying sjTRECs is closely related to the immunologic status of a person, it is important to investigate the influence of various immunologic statuses on the age estimation model. In this study, quantification of sjTREC contents was performed for groups of people with various immune system statuses, and the result showed less correlation with chronological age (r 2 = 0.424) than in the healthy group (r 2 = 0.648). The simulation model indicated that this influence could increase the range of prediction in the age estimation model, and the mean absolute deviation (MAD) between chronological age and predicted age. Through this study, it was demonstrated that immunologic status is a factor that affects the accuracy of age prediction using sjTREC quantification.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Forensic Service (NFS) and the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF-2014M3A9E1069989) in Korea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Forensic Science, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 103 Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 03080, South Korea

    Sohee Cho, Moon Young Kim & Soong Deok Lee

  2. Department of Forensic Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 103 Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 03080, South Korea

    Hee Jin Seo, Ji Hyun Lee & Soong Deok Lee

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  1. Sohee Cho
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  2. Hee Jin Seo
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  3. Ji Hyun Lee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Soong Deok Lee.

Ethics declarations

The research on the stored samples for this study was approved by the ethical committee of the Institutional Review Board of the Seoul National University Hospital Biomedical Research Institute (C-1307-126-508).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Electronic supplementary material

Supplementary Fig. 1

The distribution of sjTREC contents (Log[sjTREC per μg DNA]) for various immunologic statuses. The level of sjTREC contents was plotted with the linear regression curve in groups including individuals with a) anaphylaxis, b) urticarial, c) DRESS, d) SJS, e) DILI and f) simple rash. (DOCX 117 kb)

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Cho, S., Seo, H.J., Lee, J.H. et al. Influence of immunologic status on age prediction using signal joint T cell receptor excision circles. Int J Legal Med 131, 1061–1067 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-017-1540-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-017-1540-7

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