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Identification of female-specific blood stains using a 17β-estradiol-targeted aptamer-based sensor

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Abstract

Blood stain evidence obtained from a violent crime scene provides decisive clues that can enable a case to be solved through forensic analyses such as genetic identification. However, collected samples usually contain a mixture of biological material from different sources, making genetic identification difficult. To address this issue, we developed an activatable aptamer sensor targeting 17β-estradiol for detection of female-specific blood in mixed samples. With the sensor, we were able to detect blood originating from females using a variable light source (495 nm). The sensor was especially sensitive to blood from young females (10–40 years) but not to blood from older females (≥ 50 years). Genomic DNA was extracted from the female blood specimens identified by this method and used for quantification and short tandem repeat genotyping. We confirmed that there was no fluorescence interference from the aptamer sensor. These results indicate that this novel aptamer sensor can be used to analyze evidentiary blood samples and thereby facilitate subsequent genetic identification.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Korean government and by a grant from the Forensic Research Program of the National Forensic Service (no. NFS2017DNA02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Crime-scene DNA Section, National Forensic Service, Gwangju Institute, Gwangju, 57231, Republic of Korea

    Joo-Young Kim, Man Il Kim, Hye Hyeon Lee, Hye Lim Kim, Sang-Ok Moon & Pil-Won Kang

  2. Mibyeong Research Center, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, 34054, Republic of Korea

    Jung-Hyun Park

  3. Forensic DNA Division, National Forensic Service, Wonju, 26460, Republic of Korea

    Kyu-Sik Jeong, Ki-Won Park, Yang-Han Lee & Byung-Won Chun

Authors
  1. Joo-Young Kim
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  2. Jung-Hyun Park
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  3. Man Il Kim
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  4. Hye Hyeon Lee
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  5. Hye Lim Kim
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Correspondence to Byung-Won Chun.

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Kim, JY., Park, JH., Kim, M.I. et al. Identification of female-specific blood stains using a 17β-estradiol-targeted aptamer-based sensor. Int J Legal Med 132, 91–98 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-017-1718-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-017-1718-z

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