ESTIMATION OF CHRONOLOGICAL AGE USING THE ASPARTIC-ACID RACEMIZATION METHOD .2. ON HUMAN CORTICAL BONE

Over the last 20 years a new chemical method, base on the racemization of aspartic acid, has been developed to be used for the estimation of chronologic age in adult individuals. The method has a good accuracy when used on dental enamel, dentine and cartilage. However, in forensi c and archeological cases teeth and cartilage are not always available . Since preliminary studies have shown that there are some age-related changes of the D/L aspartic acid ratio also in bone, this study was c arried out to further explore if the method could be used for age esti mations of bone. Bone samples from 24 individuals, aged 0.2 to 95.6 ye ars were analysed for the D/L ratios with HPLC-technique. Two differen t fractions of the bone were examined, an acid-soluble peptide fractio n and an acid-insoluble collagen-rich fraction. The analyses showed ag e-related racemizations in both fractions, although of different rates . The correlation coefficients with age were 0.72 in the peptide fract ion, and 0.84 in the colo lagen-rich fraction. It thus seems as if bon e may be used for age estimations when more stable tissues like dentin e and cartilage are not available.