The application of amyloid precursor protein to a diagnosis of the death from cold.

• Project/Area Number: 11670430
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Legal medicine
• Research Institution: University of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Principal Investigator: KASAI Kentaro University of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of medicine. Forensic Medicine, Research Associate, 医学部, 助手 (40169397)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TANAKA Noriyuki University of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Medicine, Forensic Medicine, Professor, 医学部, 教授 (60126597)
• Project Period (FY): 1999 – 2001
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2001)
• Budget Amount: ¥2,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,700,000); Fiscal Year 2001: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000); Fiscal Year 2000: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000); Fiscal Year 1999: ¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000)
• Keywords: amyloid precursor protein / APP / death from cold / cold stress / exogenous death / 外因死 / ストレス / Myloid precursor protein / Dath from cold

Research Abstract

Amyloid precursor protein(APP) is induced rapidly by some types of stress, eg. increase in temperature, treatment with ethanol and sodium arsenite. In this study, using APP as a marker of the death from functional disorder, we demonstrate the changes of APP in the organs of a rat treated with cold stress and in the brain of humans from autopsy cases. The APP of a rat could be detected by SDS-PAGE with immuno-staining and ELISA in the homogenized organs with buffer1 containing O.1mM EDTA, 0.32M sucrose and 1mM PMSF. The changes of APP were detected only in the brain of a rat treated with cold stress. At the same time, the changes of APP in the rat brain were dependent on aging. In the autopsy cases, we used two kinds of buffer to extract the APP from human brain. First, the brain was homogenized with buffer1. After centrifugation, the deposit was extracted with the buffer2 containing 8M urea, 4% CHAPS and 0.2% Bio-Lyte^<TM> 3-10. We used the ratio of APP (buffer1/buffer2) as the marker in the autopsy cases.
In the asphyxia cases, the ratio of APP hi the cerebellum and medulla increased in order of hanging ＆ strangulation, smothering, choking ＆ drowning and atmospheric asphyxia. In the cases having trauma, the ratio of APP in the cerebellum and medulla Increased in order of traumatic shock, hemorrhagic shock and blood loss. These changes demonstrated the time from the functional disorder to the death. But these changes were not detected in the cortex or hippocampus. In the death from cold, only one case, the ratio of APP was very high in the cortex and hippocampus.