ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Pathology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1661063
UPLC/Q-TOF MS-based Femoral Muscle Metabolomic Analysis Under High-Temperature: A Proof of Concept for Postmortem Interval Estimation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Key Laboratory of Tropical Translational Medicine of Ministry of Education & the First Affiliated Hospital, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
- 2Faculty of Medical Technology, Chongqing Medical and Pharmaceutical College, Chongqing, China
- 3Department of Pathology, School of Basic Medicine and Life Sciences, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
- 4Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
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Accurate postmortem interval (PMI) estimation is a major challenge in forensic 2 medicine, especially for the rapidly and highly putrefied bodies in tropical high-temperature areas. Despite numerous studies, there are still no reliable, objective methods to accurately estimate PMI for corpses found in a high-temperature environment. In the current research, an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF MS)-based metabolomics approach was employed for the analysis of the metabolic profile of rat femoral muscle tissue in a high-temperature environment at different postmortem intervals. Multivariate pattern recognition and pathway analyses were employed for the identification of differential metabolites. This study identified fourteen significantly changed metabolites and two altered metabolic pathways.Among them, L-threonine, histidyl-threonine, L-tryptophan, N6-acetyl-L-lysine, eicosapentaenoic acid, glycerol 3-phosphate, and creatine were selected as possible diagnostic biomarkers for PMI estimation. Their impact value and potential biological function in the organisation's degradation process were the basis for selection. This study demonstrated the feasibility of UPLC/Q-TOF MS-based metabolomics in femoral muscle tissue research and identified several differential metabolites that may provide forensic scientists with a helpful reference in PMI estimation in a high-temperature environment.
Keywords: Forensic Pathology, Estimation of postmortem interval, Metabolomics, Femoral muscle, high temperature
Received: 07 Jul 2025; Accepted: 19 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Song, Li, Zhu, Nie and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Qianyun Nie, Key Laboratory of Tropical Translational Medicine of Ministry of Education & the First Affiliated Hospital, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
Peng Zhang, Key Laboratory of Tropical Translational Medicine of Ministry of Education & the First Affiliated Hospital, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
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