[The modern non-invasive methods for the evaluation of the age-specific changes in the skin]

[Comparative assessment of technical approaches to estimating the biological age of a person using chromatographic analysis of dentin]

The study of the amino acid composition of dentin is a new approach to determining the biological age of a person in Russia. Abroad, this method is more studied, but the authors in their research use various equipment and reagents, which makes it difficult to find the optimal technical standard for implementation in domestic practice. We studied the literature over the past 5 years on age estimation by the amino acid composition of dentin. The equipment used in the work and the results obtained were compared. A comparative evaluation of the data made it possible to make an assumption about gas chromatography using mass selective or flame ionization detectors as a method of choice for studying the amino acid composition of tooth dense tissues.

[Methodological basis for determining a person's age]

This paper presents a review of modern fundamental research studies investigating the age-related changes of connective, cartilage, nervous and bone tissues. A methodological and mathematical basis for the analysis of the obtained results is proposed. The conducted analysis enabled the formulation of a new scientific direction - the forensic medical determination of age in the identification of individuals in emergency situations with mass casualties. A scientifically grounded theory of digital forensic diagnostics of age, general regularities of development and some differences of age adaptation of connective, cartilage, nervous and bone tissues, including the phenomena of heterochronicity, heterotopy and heterogeneity resulted. The results of this research determine the direction of further research by improving the methods of quantitative age morphology, molecular autopsy, digital technologies and the formation of a technologically based concept for the registration of identifying biological features.

[A method for examining the biochemical composition of dental tissues in human teeth]

In medical literature there is no single detailed standard for studying the biochemical composition of a tooth. This circumstance led to the development of a proprietary method for determining the enantiomers of aspartic acid in hard dental tissues for use in the further study of the relationship between the amino acid composition of dental tissues and the biological age of humans. Dental tissue samples obtained from living individuals aged from 20 to 50 years were studied by chromatography-mass spectrometry. The results of the study allowed us to put forward a number of practical recommendations on the standardization of the procedure for the preparation of dental tissue samples and the parameters of chromatography-mass spectrometry research.

[The joint scientific research projects carried out by the Department of Forensic Medicine of the Sechenovsky University and the Bureau of Forensic Medical Expertise of the Moscow Health Department]

This article was designed to report the results of scientific research and practical forensic medical work carried out jointly by the personnel of Department of Forensic Medicine of the Sechenovsky University and the Bureau of Forensic Medical Expertise of the Moscow Health Department during the last 5 years.

[The forensic medical estimation of the biological age of the corpse based on the morphological changes in the skin]

The objective of the present work was the immunohistochemical evaluation of the age-related dynamics of apoptosis-associated proteins contained in the human skin epidermis. We studied the samples of skin tissues obtained during the forensic medical expertises of 100 corpses of the subjects who died in the consequence of acute blood loss in the absence of injuries or pathological changes in the skin (56 men and 44 women at the age varying from 5 to 85 years). The results of this study give evidence that the histoimmunological investigations of the skin tissues can be carried out with the use of the mmunohistochemical Ki67, bcl-2, and p53 markers for the more accurate determination of the biological age of the deceased subjects. The quantitative characteristics thus obtained serve as reliable indicators of the chronic changes in the skin and can be used as the components of the combined diagnostic procedures.

[The forensic medical characteristic of the non-identified corpses based on the materials of Bureau of Forensic Medical Expertise of the Moscow Health Department]

We undertook the analysis of the archive data of forensic medical expertises of the non-identified corpses accumulated at the tanatological divisions of the Moscow Bureau of Forensic Medical Expertise for the period from 2012 till 2016. Special attention was given to sex and age composition of the deceased as well as the structure of mortality and the traces of ethyl alcohol, if any, present in the blood. It was shown that the majority of the unidentified bodies were those of the young men, with the main cause of the non-violent deaths being the cardiovascular pathology. Ethyl alcohol was found in the blood of 43% of the corpses. The analysis encompassed also the most frequently used methods for personality identification based on the data available from the medical-criminalistic department of the Bureau of Forensic Medical Expertise. The statistical treatment of the results of the study provided materials making it possible to envision the tendencies of the further development and improvement of the methods for personality identification for the purpose of forensic medical expertise and judicial practice.

[The comprehensive evaluation of the age-specific changes in the skin]

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the age-specific changes in the skin at the anterior forearm surface of the men based on the results of the examination of 100 masculine corpses at the age varying from 18 to 80 years with the application of the low invasive techniques. The ultrasonograms were used to identify the qualitative characteristics of each skin layer being visualized with special reference to the thickness and echogenic properties of dermis and epidermis. The following parameters of the age-related changes in the skin microrelief were considered to be of particular interest: Volume (the volume of skin irregularities), SR (skin roughness), SW (skin wrinkling), and SS (skin smoothness). The qualitative characteristics of the age-specific changes in the skin as well as the parameters of its relief recorded during the ultrasound scanning can be used to comprehensively evaluate its age-related condition for the purpose of determination of the biological age of non-identified individuals. The calculation of the squared coefficient of correlation between the age-specific parameters of the skin and their changes taking into consideration the autosolvability requirements made it possible to predict the subject's age with a mean error of around 2.22 years.

[The forensic medical characteristic of sudden death associated with metabolic syndrome]

The detection of grade II-III central obesity on a corpse in conjunction with the identification of two additional criteria (such as arterial hypertension and impaired glucose tolerance) provides, if combined with the autopsy data (including the visual reduction of muscular mass, the increased total amount of the adipose tissue, gynecomastia in men together with hypertrophied abdominal adipose tissue accumulation, decreased face and body pilosis), a basis for diagnostics of metabolic syndrome (MS). The objective parameters for this purpose are waist circumference measurements, corpse weight and height, the degree of visceral obesity, narrowing of the renal arteries as a result of their compression by the surrounding adipose tissue, and accumulation of epicardial fat confirmed by the results of the biochemical analysis. The signs of plasmorrhagia combined with fibrinoid degeneration of the vascular walls in the microcirculatory bed make it possible to suspect, with a high degree of probability, the development of hypertensive crisis that may result in a sudden death of the patients presenting with metabolic syndrome.

[The possibilities for sex determination based on the specific anatomical features of the human thyroid cartilage]

The objective of the present work was to study the specific morphological features in the structure of the human thyroid cartilage obtained from 35 men and 35 women. The analysis and evaluation of 31 characteristics of the thyroid cartilage have demonstrated that its size in the men was bigger than in the women with the exception of the angle between the plates that was of a larger size in the women than in the men and showed the closest correlation with the sex. The majority of other characteristics of the thyroid cartilage measured in the study either strongly or moderately correlated with the sex which makes it possible to use these measurements for the purpose of personality identification during forensic medical expertise.

[The age-specific changes in the histological structure of the thyroid cartilage in the men]

The objective of the present study was to elucidate the morphological and morphometric characteristics of the human thyroid cartilage during different periods of life. The thyroid cartilages were harvested from 70 cadavers of the subjects of the masculine gender who had died at the age from 1 to 93 years from the non-violent causes and had neither injuries nor signs of pathological changes in the neck organs. The microscopic studies were carried out using the standard methods for the staining of the preparations with hematoxylin and eosin. The following parameters were evaluated: the area of the cartilaginous and bone tissues, the average area of the cartilaginous and bone tissues in the field of vision, the average width of the cartilaginous plate, the thickness of the cortical plate, the number of trabeculae, the average area and length of the trabeculae, the average, minimal, and maximum area of the trabeculae, the number of the young and mature chondrocytes, the width of the zones of the young and mature cartilage and their ratio, the area of the reticular-fibrous and adipose tissues and their ratio. In addition, we also determined mean values, standard deviations, correlation coefficients, and the significance of differences (p). The following characteristics exhibited the most significant correlation with the age: the average area of the bone (r=0.69) and cartilaginous (r=-0.63) tissues, adipose (r=0.67) and reticular fibrous (r=0.61) tissues, the average length of the trabeculae (r=0.7), the number of young chondrocytes in the field of vision (r=-0.789). It is concluded that the described correlations can be helpful in the practical forensic medical activities as the additional diagnostic criteria for the determination of the human age.