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DNA methylation of decedent blood samples to estimate the chronological age of human remains

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Abstract

Chronological age estimation may offer valuable investigative leads in human identification cases. Bisulfite pyrosequencing analysis of single CpG sites on five genes (KLF14, ELOVL2, C1orf132, TRIM59, and FHL2) was performed on 264 postmortem blood samples from individuals aged 3 months to 93 years. The goals were to develop age prediction models based on the correlation between the methylation profile and chronological age and to assess the accuracy of the prediction. Linear regression between methylation levels and age at each CpG site revealed that the five markers show a statistically significant correlation with age. The methylation data from a training set of 160 postmortem blood samples were used to develop an age prediction model with a correlation coefficient of 0.65, explaining 73.1% of age variation, with a mean absolute deviation from the chronological age of 7.60 years. The accuracy of the model was evaluated with a test set of 72 samples producing a mean absolute deviation of 7.42 years. The training and test sets were also categorized by specific age groups to assess accuracy and deviation from chronological age. The data for both sets revealed a lower prediction potential as an individual increases in age, particularly for the age categories above 50 years.

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Acknowledgements

From the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, the authors thank Dr Ruby Javed-Ghaffar, Chief of the Forensic Laboratories; Mr Eric Wahoske, previous supervisor of the Human Genomics Unit; and Sarah de Quintana, Chair of the Research and Publication Committee during this project, for providing approval for the use of postmortem blood samples. We also thank DNA analysts Oscar Pleitez and Naomi Weisz for facilitating the extracted postmortem blood samples. The authors extend thanks to Qiagen for supplying reagents and for the scientific collaboration by Sim Winitz and John Haley in providing training and data review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Criminal Justice and Criminalistics, California State University, 1800 Paseo Rancho Castilla, Los Angeles, CA, 90032, USA

    Yessenia Anaya, Patrick Yew & Katherine A. Roberts

  2. California Forensic Science Institute, California State University, Los Angeles, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90032, USA

    Katherine A. Roberts

  3. Human Genomics Unit, Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, 1104 N Mission Road, Los Angeles, CA, 90033, USA

    W. Reef Hardy

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  1. Yessenia Anaya
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Correspondence to Katherine A. Roberts.

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The LACDoME-C Research Committee approved this study before initiating the research. The use of decedent samples is permitted to validate new technologies and analysis methods at the LACDoME-C. The results for all samples utilized in this study were reported without personal identifying information (PII) other than the decedent’s age.

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Yessenia Anaya and Patrick Yew are co-first authors

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Anaya, Y., Yew, P., Roberts, K.A. et al. DNA methylation of decedent blood samples to estimate the chronological age of human remains. Int J Legal Med 135, 2163–2173 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-021-02650-8

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