Clinical application of forensic DNA analysis: a literature review.

Polymorphic short tandem repeat (STR) analysis after polymerase chain reaction amplification is presently the most important analytical method of forensic DNA laboratory. Beside the forensic-purpose application, STR analysis is also necessary for chimerism testing after bone marrow or allogeneic stem cell transplantation. To increase success rate of the treatment and avoid adverse effect of the transplantation procedure, serial chimerism study has to be closely monitored. Many analytical techniques have been therefore developed to improve the accuracy and sensitivity. STR-PCR is currently the most commonly used analytical method for chimerism testing. Sensitivity of the method is about 3% of the minor DNA in a specimen. The method consumes a short period of time and is convenient due to availability of the commercial kits. High discriminative ability and well-validated interpretation procedure are the attractive characteristics of the method.