2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Wound age estimation with Chitinase/Chitinase-like proteins

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	19K21472
Project/Area Number (Other)	18H06393 (2018)
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund (2019) Single-year Grants (2018)
Review Section	0908:Society medicine, nursing, and related fields
Research Institution	Nagasaki University
Principal Investigator	MURASE Takehiko 長崎大学, 医歯薬学総合研究科(医学系), 助教 (40823315)
Project Period (FY)	2018-08-24 – 2020-03-31
Keywords	受傷時期推定 / Chitinase-like 1 / 免疫組織化学 / 損傷皮膚 / ヒト
Outline of Final Research Achievements	To establish a scientific and objective method for diagnosing the age of wound, we investigated the expression of Chitinase-like 1 (CHIL1) protein in human injured skin. We classified samples of injured skin into 4 groups; 0 to 1 day after injury (group A), 2 to 3 day after injury (B), 4 to 6 day after injury (C) and over 7 day after injury (D). CHIL1 was mainly expressed in macrophages infiltrated due to inflammation and healing reactions. As a relationship between wound age and CHIL1 positive rate per infiltrated immflamatory cells, we revealed that almost no CHIL1 expression was observed in the group A (mean value: 0.1 %), positive cells appeared in the group B (1.0%), the positive rate became maximum in the group C (5.6%), and decreased in the group D (1.3%). Compared with other groups, the positive rate of CHIL1 was significantly increased in the group C. It was considered that the wound age of 4-6 days after injury could be detected by the evaluation of CHIL1 expression.
Free Research Field	法医学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	近年、乳幼児・小児のみならず成人や高齢者に対する虐待件数が増加しており、虐待死が疑われる法医剖検数も同様に増加している。このような事例では長期の暴力作用を証明し、かつ被疑者の供述の信憑性を判断するために、個々の損傷についてその受傷時期を明確に提示することが司法現場から求められる。しかし受傷後のある特定の期日を科学的に診断する方法は未だに確立されておらず、受傷後の特異的な期日に発現する診断マーカーを同定・確立することが法医病理学分野において希求されている。本研究によって受傷4-6日後の損傷を科学的に検出することが可能となり、虐待死事案等におけるより信頼性の高い法医鑑定に繋がることが期待される。