New study shows how metabolomics could be the newest addition to a forensic pathologist's toolkit
2022.03.01
Metabolomic analysis of postmortem blood reveals biomarkers that can be used to diagnose diabetes mellitus, enabling accurate forensic diagnosis.
Forensic pathologists have a battery of techniques in their arsenal to help unravel a decedent's cause of death, such as an undiagnosed disease. The latest addition to this toolkit is metabolomics. In a new study, scientists from Japan have used metabolomic analysis to identify metabolites that could be used for the postmortem diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. Their findings suggest that metabolomic analysis of postmortem samples can be a valuable technique in forensic science. They were recently published in The International Journal of Legal Medicine.
Heat map analysis of metabolomics for hydrophilic substances. The row displays the ions, and the column represents the samples. Ions with significantly lower levels are displayed in blue, while ions with significantly higher levels are displayed in red. The brightness of each color corresponds to the magnitude of the difference when compared to the average value. The samples roughly form clusters of DM group (red) and Ng group (green).