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. 2021 Apr 29;9(5):514.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare9050514.

Forensic Application of Monoclonal Anti-Human Glycophorin A Antibody in Samples from Decomposed Bodies to Establish Vitality of the Injuries. A Preliminary Experimental Study

Benedetta Baldari  1 , Simona Vittorio  1 , Francesco Sessa  2 , Luigi Cipolloni  2 , Giuseppe Bertozzi  2 , Margherita Neri  3 , Santina Cantatore  2 , Vittorio Fineschi  1 , Mariarosaria Aromatario  4
Affiliations

Forensic Application of Monoclonal Anti-Human Glycophorin A Antibody in Samples from Decomposed Bodies to Establish Vitality of the Injuries. A Preliminary Experimental Study

Benedetta Baldari et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

Glycophorins are an important group of red blood cell (RBC) transmembrane proteins. Monoclonal antibodies against GPA are employed in immunohistochemical staining during post-mortem examination: Through this method, it is possible to point out the RBC presence in tissues. This experimental study aims to investigate anti-GPA immunohistochemical staining in order to evaluate the vitality of the lesion from corpses in different decomposition state. Six cases were selected, analyzing autopsies' documentation performed by the Institute of Legal Medicine of Rome in 2010-2018: four samples of fractured bones and three samples of soft tissues. For the control case, the fracture region of the femur was sampled. The results of the present study confirm the preliminary results of other studies, remarking the importance of the GPA immunohistochemical staining to highlight signs of survival. Moreover, this study suggests that the use of this technique should be routinely applied in cases of corpses with advanced putrefaction phenomena, even when the radiological investigation is performed, the macroscopic investigation is inconclusive, the H&E staining is not reliable. This experimental application demonstrated that the use of monoclonal antibody anti-human GPA on bone fractures and soft tissues could be important to verify whether the lesion is vital or not.

Keywords: forensic pathology; glycophorin A investigation; vitality.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
H&E staining: occipital bone from case 1 (A); mandible fragment from case 3 (B); soft tissues surrounding laryngeal fracture from case 4 (C); neck skin from case 5 (D); rib fracture from case 5 (E); retina from case 6 (F).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Immunohistochemical staining with anti-human GPA antibody: positivity at the margin of occipital bone fracture from case 1 (A); positivity at the stump of the mandible fracture from case 3 (B); positivity in the context of soft tissues surrounding laryngeal fracture from case 4 (C); positivity in dermis of neck skin from case 5 (D); positivity in the contest of soft tissues surrounding rib fracture from case 5 (E); positivity of the retinal sample from case 6 (F).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Negative immunohistochemical staining with anti-human GPA antibody for different tissues: Femur ((A), H&E; (B), immunostaining with anti-human GPA antibody); (C) Skin; (D) Soft tissues surrounding laryngeal area.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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