[The role of heat shock proteins on the disordered tissues: implication for the pathogenesis and diagnostics in the forensic practice].

There are many problems in identifying the cause of death from the early acute myocardial infarction and hypothermia in the field of forensic medicine, because there are no clear findings to identify without details of circumstances. It was caused complexly by many factors such as health condition, age, surroundings, weather, alcohol drinking, drugs poisoning, etc., and unfortunately the early acute myocardial infarction and hypothermia invasion almost never show the vital reactions. A variety stresses especially ischemia and temperature induce the expression of heat shock proteins (Hsp), and previous reports have documented the function and regulation of Hsp expression. Hsp are currently classified into five groups on the basis of size. Of these, the 70 Kd Hsp (Hsp70 family) are regarded as most important proteins because they are most often highly induced in stressed cells. In the field of medical science, various diseases induce the expression of Hsp and especially Hsp70 family are well related to some diseases. Of course, previous report in the field of forensic medicine demonstrated that hypoxic/ischemic neuronal damage induced the expression of Hsp70 in the brain of forensic autopsy cases and suggested that investigation of Hsp70 could be effective for diagnosing hypoxic/ischemic neuronal damage during process of death. So we investigated the expression of Hsp70 induced by the lethal ischemia and hypothermia in the experimental rat model and practical autopsy cases. The present study suggests that the lethal ischemia induce the expression of Hsp70 in the heart and the lethal hypothermia induce the expression of Hsp70 in the cerebral cortex, and these inductions are one clear findings contributing to the estimate the cause of death from the acute myocardial infarction or lethal hypothermia in the forensic autopsy cases.