A new approach to amino acid racemization in enamel: testing of a less destructive sampling methodology

Griffin, Rebecca C.; Moody, Howard; Penkman, Kirsty E. H.; Fagan, Michael J.; Curtis, Neil; Collins, Matthew J.

Abstract

Aspartic acid racemization has been found to be an accurate measure of age at death for recent forensic material. This paper examines the practicality of using acid etching of the tooth surface to extract amino acids from the enamel for racemization analysis. By serial etching of the tooth and contamination of the teeth with bovine serum albumin prior to etching, the ability of etching to remove contamination was assessed. The destructiveness of the method was visualized and quantified using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). By bleaching the teeth and by deeper etching it was possible to obtain more consistent values. While etching had little effect on the enamel at the macroscale, it did have an impact at the microscale. The quantities of enamel removed varied depending upon the tooth morphology, but were not large. Acid etching of enamel thus appears to be a promising new method for extracting proteins for amino acid racemization age estimation noninvasively.

Citation

Griffin, R. C., Moody, H., Penkman, K. E. H., Fagan, M. J., Curtis, N., & Collins, M. J. (2008). A new approach to amino acid racemization in enamel: testing of a less destructive sampling methodology. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 53(4), 910-916. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1556-4029.2008.00753.x

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jul 4, 2008
• Publication Date: 2008-07
• Journal: JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES
• Print ISSN: 0022-1198
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 910-916
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1556-4029.2008.00753.x
• Keywords: Pathology and Forensic Medicine; Genetics
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/396194
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1556-4029.2008.00753.x