Identifying Methylation Patterns in Dental Pulp Aging: Application to Age-at-Death Estimation in Forensic Anthropology

Zapico, Sara C.; Gauthier, Quentin; Antevska, Aleksandra; McCord, Bruce

doi:10.3390/ijms22073717

Cited by 19 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(40 reference statements)

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“…Although this could make this technique easier and could increase the applicability of this technique for age estimation, it should still be considered that the whole tooth is a mixture of different layers with different structures. Our study only focused on dentin because previous work from our group applying other biochemical techniques for age estimation [ 37 , 38 , 39 ] highlighted the importance of tissue-specificity in the accuracy of the technique.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Aspartic Acid Racemization for Age Estimation in a Spanish Sample

Zapico

Ubelaker

2022

Biology

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Correct age-at-death estimation in adult individuals is one of the challenges of forensic investigation. Forensic anthropology macroscopic techniques are non-invasive methods for this purpose. However, several methods need to be applied to accurately estimate age, and the difference between chronological and predictive age may still be around ±10 years. New research trends are focused on the inherent process of aging, which produces changes in tissues and organs at different biochemical levels. One of the oldest and most studied approaches in this field is aspartic acid racemization. The accuracy of this technique in age estimation has been widely demonstrated. However, only a few studies have assessed its accuracy in different populations. The aim of this research was to assess the accuracy of aspartic acid racemization in a Spanish sample and its applicability to forensic cases. Dentin from fifteen third molars from two Spanish populations (ages 19–70 years old) was isolated and D and L forms of aspartic acid were detected through GC/MS, according to a previous published protocol. D/L ratios were calculated and after the application of a regression analysis, a formula for age estimation was developed. The results were similar to previous studies, obtaining an R = 0.91 between racemization ratios and age and a mean absolute error (MAE) between chronological and predictive age of 5 years. These results were ratified by leave-one-out cross-validation, as well as the application of the formula to five teeth of a known age. Despite these promising results, this technique is not exempt from drawbacks; thus, further studies are required to apply this methodology to forensic cases and to combine it with forensic anthropology findings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Aspartic Acid Racemization for Age Estimation in a Spanish Sample

Zapico

Ubelaker

2022

Biology

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“…By means of comparison, model performances have been surveyed for various tissues that remain (relatively) intact after post-mortem degradation, such as bones [10, 19]), teeth [6, 20, 21, 22, 25] and hair [38]. Where both preliminary and more elaborate data from teeth and bones have yielded MADs ranging roughly from 1.5 to 8 years [6, 10, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25], those obtained from the training and test sets of the current data are rather at the high end of this range. Using hair as sample material, Hao et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age determination through DNA methylation patterns of fingernails and toenails

Fokias

Dierckx

Voorde

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Over the past decade, age prediction based on DNA methylation has become a vastly investigated topic; many age prediction models have been developed based on different DNAm markers and using various tissues. However, the potential of using nails to this end has not yet been explored. Their inherent resistance to decay and ease of sampling would offer an advantage in cases where post-mortem degradation poses challenges concerning sample collection and DNA-extraction. In the current study, clippings from both fingernails and toenails were collected from 108 living test subjects (age range: 0 – 96 years). The methylation status of 15 CpGs located in 4 previously established age-related markers (ASPA, EDARADD, PDE4C, ELOVL2) was investigated through pyrosequencing of bisulphite converted DNA. Significant dissimilarities in methylation levels were observed between all four limbs, hence limb-specific age prediction models were developed using ordinary least squares, weighted least squares and quantile regression analysis. When applied to their respective test sets, these models yielded a mean absolute deviation between predicted and chronological age ranging from 6.71 to 8.48 years. In addition, the assay was tested on methylation data derived from 5 nail samples collected from deceased individuals, demonstrating its feasibility for application in post-mortem cases. In conclusion, this study provides the first proof that chronological age can be assessed through DNA methylation patterns in nails.

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“…After that, several other APMs have been built, essentially for blood samples [5,10,11,40,42,44,51,[53][54][55][56][57][58][59]64,[68][69][70][71][72][73]. With the growth of DNAm age research, many authors have investigated DNAm levels in many tissue types such as buccal swabs [42][43][44]52,59], sperm [60,74], bloodstains [11,53,56], teeth [51,[75][76][77][78], bones [44,77,79,80], and hair samples [81,82]. These studies included different genes or CpGs, different methodologies for evaluation of methylation levels, and used many statistical approaches.…”

Section: Tissue-specific Apmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To the best of our knowledge, these are the only two models developed for hair samples to date. Still, in the year of 2021, Zapico and collaborators [78] developed the fifth study including tooth samples. They evaluated DNAm levels of 46 CpGs located at ELOVL2, KLF14, SCGN, NPTX2, and FHL2 genes, using pyrosequencing in 20 third molars, developing four accurate APMs for pulp samples.…”

Section: Tissue-specific Apmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges and (Un)Certainties for DNAm Age Estimation in Future

et al. 2022

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Age estimation is a paramount issue in criminal, anthropological, and forensic research. Because of this, several areas of research have focused on the establishment of new approaches for age prediction, including bimolecular and anthropological methods. In recent years, DNA methylation (DNAm) has arisen as one of the hottest topics in the field. Many studies have developed age-prediction models (APMs) based on evaluation of DNAm levels of many genes in different tissue types and using different methodological approaches. However, several challenges and confounder factors should be considered before using methylation levels for age estimation in forensic contexts. To provide in-depth knowledge about DNAm age estimation (DNAm age) and to understand why it is not yet a current tool in forensic laboratories, this review encompasses the literature for the most relevant scientific works published from 2015 to 2021 to address the challenges and future directions in the field. More than 60 papers were considered focusing essentially on studies that developed models for age prediction in several sample types.

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Identifying Methylation Patterns in Dental Pulp Aging: Application to Age-at-Death Estimation in Forensic Anthropology

Cited by 19 publications

References 48 publications

Application of Aspartic Acid Racemization for Age Estimation in a Spanish Sample

Application of Aspartic Acid Racemization for Age Estimation in a Spanish Sample

Age determination through DNA methylation patterns of fingernails and toenails

Challenges and (Un)Certainties for DNAm Age Estimation in Future

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