TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2005//
TI  - Quantitative analysis of ubiquitin-immunoreactivity in the midbrain periaqueductal gray matter with regard to the causes of death in forensic autopsy
JO  - Legal medicine (Elsevier)
A1  - Quan, Linda
A1  - Ishikawa, Takaki
A1  - Michiue, Tomomi
A1  - Li, Dong-Ri
A1  - Zhao, Dong
A1  - Zhu, Bao-Li
A1  - Maeda, Hitoshi
SP  - 151
EP  - 156
VL  - 7
IS  - 3
N2  - The aim of the present study was to examine Ub-immunoreactivity in the midbrain periaqueductal gray matter (PGM), which is involved in pain processing and modulation, in forensic autopsy cases (n=273) in relation to the causes of death: acute deaths from blunt injuries (n=75), sharp weapon injuries (n=36), fatal asphyxiation (n=22), drownings (n=16: freshwater, n=9; saltwater, n=7), fire fatalities (n=64), poisoning (n=12), hyperthermia (n=5), hypothermia (n=5), delayed deaths from blunt head injury (n=8), acute cardiac deaths (n=24), and acute cerebrovascular strokes (n=6). The Ub-immunoreactivity was clearly observed in the nuclei of the PGM neurons, showing no postmortem interference or age-dependency. A higher value was observed in blunt injuries, fire fatalities and also in saltwater drowning, hyperthermia and delayed head injury deaths. These findings suggest a complicated mechanism for the ubiquitination of PGM neurons, to which multiple factors including the intensity and duration of pains possibly under alert consciousness, traumatic and metabolic neurodegeneration may contribute.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1344-6223
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.legalmed.2004.11.003
ID  - ref1
ER  -