title: Autophagy in skin wounds: a novel marker for vital reactions.
abstract: Detection of vitality of mechanical wounds in human cadavers is one of the important issues in forensic medicine. In order to explore novel markers for vitality of acute mechanical wounds, we investigated autophagy in mouse and human skin wounds. Western blotting analysis of mouse skin wounds showed marked reduction of LC3-II and reciprocal increase of p62 in wound samples with the postinfliction intervals of ≥0.5 h, compared with the uninjured skin tissues. These observations indicated that autophagy level was reduced in the wound sites. In postmortem wound samples, there were no remarkable changes in LC3-II and p62 levels. Furthermore, the postmortem intervals of 1-4 days have no significant effects on the changes of LC3-II and p62 in the antemortem skin wounds. Like murine wound samples, these alterations of LC3-II and p62 could be detected in human skin wound samples. Collectively, our study using animal and human samples implied that the detection of autophagy-related molecules such as LC3-II and p62 might be useful for forensic practice as markers of wound vitality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, Wakayama Medical University, 811-1 Kimiidera, Wakayama, 641-8509, Japan.
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishida
authors.forename: Mizuho
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nosaka
authors.forename: Maiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shiraki
authors.forename: Mizuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hama
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawaguchi
authors.forename: Yumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kuninaka
authors.forename: Emi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Shimada
authors.forename: Hiroki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Tatsunori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takayasu
authors.forename: Toshikazu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kondo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001343:Autophagy / Q000502:physiology*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D012867:Skin / Q000293:injuries* / Q000473:pathology*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers