Journal Highlight: Dating bloodstains with fluorescence lifetime measurements

Dating bloodstains with fluorescence lifetime measurements

Chemistry - A European Journal 2012, 18, 1303-1305
Kevin Guo, Samuel Achilefu, Mikhail Y. Berezin

Abstract: Determining the age of a bloodstain at a crime scene is one of the greatest and oldest challenges in forensic science. The results presented herein, with dog blood as a model, indicate a highly reproducible correlation between the fluorescence lifetime and the age of the bloodstain. The time-dependent changes in fluorescence lifetime were attributed to the alteration of tryptophan. Our approach is based on the fact that the fluorescence lifetime of tryptophan - the major endogenous fluorophore in blood proteins - is highly sensitive to the protein conformation. We hypothesized that in the process of blood aging, the major tryptophan-containing proteins, such as albumin and gamma-globulins, which constitute more than 95 % of the protein mass in blood, undergo structural changes. Consequently, we expected that the time-related degradation of proteins in blood would reflect the blood age.

• This paper is free to view to spectroscopyNOW registered users until the end of March 2012. After this time it will be available via Wiley's Pay-Per-View service for US$35.
• Click here to access the abstract of this paper. From there, you can access the PDF version.
• Click here for more details about Chemistry - A European Journal