Abstract
Age-at-death
estimation constitutes one of the key parameters for identification of human
remains in forensic contexts. However, from the point-of-view of forensic
anthropology, this estimation is difficult in adult individuals, leading to
estimates of +/- 10 years respect to chronological age. Based on the recent
trends in aging studies, DNA methylation has great potential as a solution to
this problem. Unfortunately, there are only four studies applying DNA
methylation to determine age from human remains and they all suffer from
various drawbacks. FIU researchers have
identified novel genes in tooth pulp as markers for age estimation and improved
DNA methylation determination techniques. These new techniques are the first ones analyzing the methylation status of five genes in pulp applying pyrosequencing,
which has high coverage and precision on methylation analysis. The combination
of certain CpG sites of these five genes were used in four multivariate
regression models with a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) between predicted and
chronological age of 1.5-2.13 years, therefore greatly improving the
accuracy of identification in forensic anthropology.
Benefit
Allows for accurate age determinationRequires only small amount of tooth pulp DNA
Market Application
Forensics anthropologyOdontologyTeeth agingAging studiesMass Disasters
Publications
Identifying
Methylation Patterns in Dental Pulp Aging: Application to Age-at-Death
Estimation in Forensic Anthropology
Brochure
