QUANTITATION OF NUCLEOTIDES, NUCLEOSIDES AND BASES IN ANTEMORTEM AND POSTMORTEM BLOODSTAINS BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY

Ante- and post-mortem bloodstains prepared from the blood of volunteer s and corpses were analysed for ATP and its related compounds by rever sed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results s howed that (1) ATP was present in a large amount in antemortem bloodst ains but not in postmortem stains, (2) AMP, adenosine, inosine, hypoxa nthine, xanthine and uracil either were not detected or were detected in smaller amounts in antemortem than in postmortem bloodstains, and ( 3) ADP was present in both ante- and postmortem bloodstains. These dif ferences suggest that quantitation of these compounds may be useful in identifying whether bloodstains are ante- or post-mortem.