Figure 1
Anatomical location of costal cartilage in the rib cage (light gray color). The arrow shows the place from which the research material was collected
Figure 2
Morphological changes in costal cartilage at different times elapsed since death and at different exposure times to environmental factors: A – few days after death; B – few weeks after death; C – 7 months after death; D – 2 years and 11 months after death
Figure 3
Morphological changes in costal cartilage in almost skeletonized cadavers: A – remains of costal cartilage collected from 67-year-old male cadaver of unknown identity, found in the converted and abandoned bus 14 months after death; B – remains of costal cartilage collected from male cadaver of unknown identity and age, found in a ditch 3 years after death
Table 1
Statistical analysis of DNA concentration measured for different loci in costal cartilage samples collected from cadavers retrieved from different environments. The results are presented as median (lower – upper quartile). Statistical significance was set at p > 0.05
| Cadaver retrieval location | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variable | 1 Indoors (flat/after hospitalization) n = 19 | 2 Outdoors (primarily in forest area) n = 24 | 3 Water/exhumation site n = 5 | 4 Coal mine n = 9 | 5 Fire site n = 6 | 6 Basement/uninhabited building n = 7 | 7 Unknown location n = 9 | p |
| T. Large amplicon DNA concentration [ng/μl] n = 79 | 4.8 (2.6-8.7) | 4.8 (2.5-9.7) | 8.4 (3.9-14.1) | 9.1 (7.6-11.6) | 4.6 (2.3-13.7) | 6.5 (4.8-7.3) | 6.2 (4.4-19.5) | 0.143 |
| T. Small amplicon DNA concentration [ng/μl] n = 79 | 3.8 (2.3-8.2) | 3.8 (2.3-7.1) | 7.1 (2.5-13.4) | 7.1(6.2-9.2) | 4.9 (2.5-10.0) | 6.6 (4.3-7.8) | 4.8 (3.7-16.7) | 0.146 |
| Y amplicon DNA concentration [ng/μl] n = 68 | 6.0 (3.9-9.8) n = 16 | 4.3 (2.3-7.1) n = 22 | 9.3 (3.2-17.2) n = 4 | 8.7 (7.2-13.3) n = 9 | 9.5 (5.4-14.9) n = 4 | 6.4 (8.8-7.9) n = 6 | 10.2 (4.4-21.3) n = 7 | 0.132 |
| Degradation index* n = 79 | 0.9 (0.8-1.0) | 0.8 (0.7-0.9) | 0.9 (0.6-0.9) | 0.9 (0.8-0.9) | 1.0 (0.8-1.1) | 1.0 (0.7-1.1) | 0.8 (0.8-0.9) | 0.503 |
Figure 4
Places in which the cadavers included in the study were found
Figure 5
DNA concentration [ng/ μl] after T. Large autosomal sequence (214 bp) amplification in costal cartilage samples collected from cadavers retrieved from different environments
Figure 6
DNA concentration [ng/ μl] after T. Small autosomal sequence (80 bp) amplification in costal cartilage samples collected from cadavers retrieved from different environments
Figure 7
DNA concentration [ng/ μl] after the Y chromosome sequence (75 bp) amplification in costal cartilage samples collected from male cadavers retrieved from different environments
Figure 8
DNA degradation index* in costal cartilage samples collected from cadavers retrieved from different environments. *T. Large amplicon DNA concentration/T. Small amplicon DNA concentration