Postmortem interval determination using 18S-rRNA and microRNA

The importance of determining postmortem interval (PMI) is crucial to criminal, civil and forensic cases. The precise estimation of PMI is a critical step in many death investigations. A technique exploiting the level of RNA, 18S rRNA and microRNA to estimate PMI was investigated. 18S-rRNA is a main ribosomal RNA presented as part of the ribosomal protein complex, while microRNA is a class of small non-coding single-stranded RNA, only 21-25 nucleotides, which has a strong conservation between different species. In this study, heart tissues were removed from adult rats at various postmortem intervals. An efficient extraction and detection protocol to analyze the level of 18S-rRNA and microRNA in postmortem tissue was carried out. The process consists of total RNA extraction, transcription and visualization by quantitative real time PCR. The result indicates a characteristic parabola relationship between postmortem period and Ct values for 18S-rRNA in dead rat hearts. The result indicates that the degradation pattern of tissue 18S-rRNA and microRNA is useful in the determination of the postmortem interval within seven days.