Biomedical subjects

Akiko Tsuji

Publications and source records attributed to Akiko Tsuji.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

Age estimation in dental pulp DNA based on human telomere shortening.

Age estimation based on evidence found in teeth has received considerable attention within the field of forensic science. We determined the terminal restriction fragment (TRF) length, as telomere length, to estimate age. Using dental pulp DNA we found the average TRF length showed a tendency to shortening with aging. Our findings show that telomere shortening, based on dental pulp DNA is a new and useful approach to estimate age of the subject at the time of death.

Aging↗

PubMed2002

Estimating age of humans based on telomere shortening.

To estimate age using DNA based on telomere shortening, we determined the terminal restriction fragment (TRF) length, as telomere length, using Southern blot analysis of peripheral human blood and blood stains. All blood stains had been stored at room temperature for 5 months. The average TRF length clearly showed a tendency to shortening with aging. The formula for age estimation was based on a correlation between average TRF length and age of the subjects. The estimated age calculated from TRF length widely depends on environmental and genetic factors. However, as long as the DNA is well preserved, use of our method is feasible regardless of age of the subject and can give a rough estimation of age of subjects in forensic samples that carry no morphological information.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Acute cerebral infarction caused by congenital hypoplasty of cerebral artery in a severe burn case.

An 81-year-old man who had been healthy died 1 week after suffering severe burns. The autopsy revealed a fresh unilateral cerebral infarction with hemorrhagic transformation within the territory of the anterior cerebral artery (ACA) and hypoplasty of the A1 portion of the ACA. Since no other cause which could have resulted in this infarction was detected and since the victim had been healthy before the fire broke out, we concluded that this infarction occurred because of congenital hypoplasty of the left ACA and hypovolemic shock suffered after the burn injuries. Since cerebral infarction itself can lead to burn injuries or other accidents due to acute motor disturbance or syncope, detailed macroscopic and histological examinations of the brain of severe burn victims is important for evaluating the correlation between the infarction and a fire or other accidents.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2002

Maternity testing using mitochondrial DNA analysis.

We examined the maternal relationship in two cases using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis. The hypervariable region, HVI in the displacement loop (D-loop) region, was amplified and sequenced. Samples from both cases showed the nucleotide replacements of A to C at positions 16,182 and 16,183, and T to C at position 16,189, giving rise to a C-stretch from position 16,182 to 16,193, in which twelve Cs continued. We were unable to read the region after the C-stretch by forward sequencing in both cases, and it was thought that heteroplasmy was the reason for this. However, there were other identical nucleotide replacements in addition to the C-stretch in both cases. Additionally, nucleotide sequencing was used successfully to demonstrate complete maternal inheritance in all the offspring of eight families over two or three generations. We were therefore able to confirm the maternal relationship in the two present cases, and accordingly we consider that mtDNA sequencing is a very useful method for examining the maternal relationship, especially in cases where the father is not available.

Aged↗