Aspartic acid racemisation in dentine as a measure of ageing

Helfman, Patricia Masters; Bada, Jeffrey L.

doi:10.1038/262279b0

Cited by 323 publications

(171 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…These methods have shown promise and can in the best of cases produce estimate values within ±5yrs of the actual age [13][14][15]17]. In teeth [27] it produced a 95% CI of ±8.7yrs across the ages and ±6.2yrs for ages less than 35.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The aspartic acid racemisation technique for age estimation [13], first developed in 1979, has been tried and tested in the archaeological and forensic context [14][15][16]. This method is very laboratory and protocol-dependent [17], and achieves an average accuracy of ±5 years in bone tissue and ±3 years at best in perfectly preserved teeth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Determining ‘age at death’ for forensic purposes using human bone by a laboratory-based biomechanical analytical method

Zioupos

Williams

Christodoulou

et al. 2014

Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determining ‘age at death’ for forensic purposes using human bone by a laboratory-based biomechanical analytical method

Zioupos

Williams

Christodoulou

et al. 2014

Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials

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“…Also, the racemization rate accelerates with increasing temperatures (Bada and Schroeder 1975). It was previously suggested that racemization rates in teeth and eye lens nuclei were similar between mammalian species (Bada et al 1980), however rates have been found to vary in lens nuclei from species such as humans (Masters et al 1977), cetaceans (Nerini 1983, Garde et al 2012, Rosa et al 2013, Nielsen et al 2013) and seals (Garde et al 2010), as well as in teeth from humans (Helfman and Bada 1976) and rats (Ohtani et al 1995b). Inter-species differences in core body temperature have been proposed as the reason for these differences (Ohtani et al 1995b, Garde et al 2007, Rosa et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The aspartic acid racemization (AAR) technique has been thoroughly investigated using humans of known age (Helfman and Bada 1976, Masters et al 1977, Ohtani et al 1995a, Ritz-Timme et al 2003), but only a few studies have been conducted on known-age individuals from non-human mammal species with limited sample sizes as well (Bada et al 1980, Fujii et al 1989, Ohtani et al 1995b. Although it is a promising alternative to traditional age estimation methods, AAR still requires validation from known-age animals as well as a more thorough examination of the racemization rates for different species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aspartic acid racemizes the fastest of the amino acids and is as such measurable in living organisms. AAR has been detected in several types of human tissues such as teeth (Helfman and Bada 1976), eye lens nuclei (Masters et al 1977), bone (Ohtani et al 1998), brain (Fisher et al 1992), and elastin (Ritz-Timme et al 2003, Meissner andRitz-Timme 2010). Tissue from eye lens nuclei is especially suitable for AAR analysis as this is among the most stable in the human body (Masters et al 1977).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Accuracy of the Aspartic Acid Racemization Technique in Age Estimation of Mammals and the Influence of Body Temperature

et al. 2018

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The aspartic acid racemization (AAR) technique has been applied for age estimation of humans and other mammals for more than four decades. In this study, eye lenses from 124 animals representing 25 mammalian species were collected and D/L ratios obtained using the AAR technique. The animals were either of known age or had the age estimated by other methods. The purpose of the study was to: a) estimate the accuracy of the AAR technique, and b) examine the effect of body temperature on racemization rates. Samples from four of the 25 species covered the range of ages that is needed to estimate speciesspecific racemization rates. The sample size from a single species of known age, the pygmy goat (Capra hircus, n = 35), was also large enough to investigate the accuracy of ages obtained using the AAR technique. The 35 goats were divided into three datasets: all goats (n = 35), goats >0.5 yrs old (n = 26) and goats >2 yrs old (n = 19). Leave-one-out analyses were performed on the three sets of data. Normalized root mean squared errors for the group of goats >0.5 yrs old were found to be the smallest. The higher variation in D/L measurements found for young goats <0.5 yrs can probably be explained by a period of continued postnatal growth of the eye lens. Normalized root mean squared errors from the leave-one-out cross-validation analyses based on goats >0.5 yrs old was for three age groups of the goats: 0.934 yrs for young goats <2 yrs (n = 16), 0.102 yrs for adult goats from 2-8 yrs (n = 15) and 0.133 yrs for old goats >8 yrs (n = 4). Thus, the age of an adult or an old animal can be predicted with approximately 10% accuracy, whereas the age of a NAMMCO Scientific Publications, Volume 10 young animal is difficult to predict. A goat specific racemization rate, as a 2k Asp value, was estimated to 0.0107 ± 3.8 x 10 -4 SE (n = 26). The 2k Asp values from 12 species, four estimated in this study and another eight published, were used to examine the effect of core body temperature on the rate of racemization. A positive relationship between AAR and temperature was found (r 2 = 0.321) but results also suggest that other factors besides temperature are involved in the racemization process in living animals. Based on our results we emphasize that non-species-specific racemization rates should be used with care in AAR age estimation studies and that the period of postnatal growth of the eye lens be considered when estimating species-specific D/L 0 values and ages of young individuals.

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The coronal pulp cavity index: A biomarker for age determination in human adults

Drusini

Toso

Ranzato

1997

Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.

112

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The correlation between reduction of the coronal pulp cavity and chronological age was examined in a sample of 846 intact teeth from 433 individuals of known age and sex. Panoramic (rotational) radiography was used to measure the height (mm) of the crown (CH = coronal height) and the height (mm) of the coronal pulp cavity (CPCH = coronal pulp cavity height) of 425 premolars and 421 molars from 213 males and 220 females. The tooth-coronal index (TCI) after Ikeda et al. [1985] Jpn. J. For. Med. 39:244-250) was computed for each tooth and regressed on real age. The correlation coefficients ranged from -0.92 (molars, combined sample, right side) to -0.87 (female molars), with an S.E. of the estimate ranging from 5.88-6.66 years. Correlations were slightly higher in males than females. The equations obtained allowed estimation of age in a sample of 100 teeth from both sexes (not used for the regression) with an error of +/- 5 years in 81.4% of cases for male molars. The regression formulae for estimating age obtained from the recent sample were tested on a historical sample of 100 teeth from 100-year-old skeletons with an error of +/- 5 years in 70.3% of cases for male molars. This study illustrates the potential value of a little-known aging method which can be easily applied to estimate age in both living individuals and skeletal material of unknown age.

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Aspartic acid racemisation in dentine as a measure of ageing

Cited by 323 publications

References 7 publications

Determining ‘age at death’ for forensic purposes using human bone by a laboratory-based biomechanical analytical method

Determining ‘age at death’ for forensic purposes using human bone by a laboratory-based biomechanical analytical method

Accuracy of the Aspartic Acid Racemization Technique in Age Estimation of Mammals and the Influence of Body Temperature

The coronal pulp cavity index: A biomarker for age determination in human adults

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