Age estimation by telomeric length using human (Homo sapiens) and domestic cat (Felis catus) epidermis, bone and cartilage samples was found to be ineffective

Abstract

Age estimation using telomere length is an alternative tool that could facilitate the casework in forensic investigations. Although blood can be used in the measurement of telomere length in order to estimate chronological age and/or biological age, the use of blood does present certain potential limitations such as the possibility of infection, the influence of medication, chemicals or the level of stress a subject might have been exposed to, all of which can contribute to fluctuations in telomere length. In this study, tissue samples of the epidermis, bone, and cartilage were collected from human cadavers (Homo sapiens, n=80) and those of domestic cats (Felis catus, n=30) for telomere shortening assessment. The relative telomere length (RTL) was assessed by real-time PCR to estimate the age of the collected specimens ranking between 16- to 95- or 1- to 9-year old human or domestic cat cadavers, respectively. As a result, there was no significant correlation between telomere shortening and age recorded in the bone and cartilage, yet a small positive relationship between age and telomere shortening was observed in the human epidermis with R2 = 0.0276 (p = 0.0095) and in the epidermis samples obtained from female domestic cats with R2 = 0.1373 (p = 0.0171). Taken together, these results suggest that the determination of telomere length using real-time PCR obtained from human epidermis, bone, and cartilage samples may not be applicable for determination of an estimation of age in human and domestic cat specimens.