PCR-based identification of postmortem microbial contaminants - A preliminary study

Investigation of postmortem blood can reveal the presence of significant et hanol levels. However, in some instances it cannot easily be determined if the source of ethanol is from ingestion or from postmortem endogenous ferme ntation by contaminating microbes. Described here is a robust: polymerase c hain reaction (PCR)-based method for detecting the presence of common ethan ol producing microbial contaminants in human blood, A set of DNA primers we re designed for use in PCR to amplify and detect the genomic DNA from human s and three rest microorganisms Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris, and Can dida albicans. A rapid and reproducible protocol was developed for isolatin g genomic DNA from mixed human blood-microorganism samples that yields a su itable template for PCR. The organism-specific primer pairs can detect the presence of the target microorganisms in human blood at concentrations as l ow as 10 colony forming units/mL. The PCR products readily can be detected after agarose gel electrophoresis. This method provides an additional means of rapidly identifying microbial contaminants in postmortem blood samples.