R. Hausmann et al., THE TIME-RELATED EXPRESSION OF P53 PROTEIN IN HUMAN SKIN WOUNDS - A QUANTITATIVE IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS, International journal of legal medicine, 111(4), 1998, pp. 169-172
The time-dependent expression of p53 protein during wound healing has
been investigated by immunochemistry in fibroblastic cells of skin wou
nds ranging between a few minutes and 11 weeks old. When compared to u
ninjured skin, an increased expression of p53 was found earliest in a
wound with a postinfliction interval of 3 days. The ratio (r) of posit
ively stained cells in relation to the total number of fibroblastic ce
lls in the wound area of this specimen was about 0.2. A considerable i
ncrease in the expression of p53 (r > 0.5) was first found in a wound
aged 8 days and in wounds with postinfliction intervals ranging betwee
n 3 and 11 weeks, where the ratio of positive cells was between 0.40 a
nd 0.64. Therefore, it can be calculated that r-values of at least 0.5
indicate a postinfliction interval of approximately 1 week or more. S
ince comparably low numbers of positively stained fibroblastic cells w
ere found in specimens with an advanced wound duration, reliable infor
mation for a forensic wound age estimation can only be provided by pos
itive results.