Postmortem stability of some markers of intra-vital wounds.

We have studied the diagnostic value of several markers of the intra-vital nature of wounds - cathepsin D (EC 3.4.23.5) and ions (Ca, Mg, Cu, Zn and Fe) - after the influence of putrefaction. For this purpose, we have inflicted vital wounds to six pigs, which were killed 20 min later. Ten minutes after death, wounds were excised with 5-6 cm of skin around the incision and maintained at three different temperatures (4, 18 and 28.5 +/- 13.4 degrees C). After varying periods of postmortem interval from 0 to 48 h, aliquots of each wound were taken and analyzed with atomic absorption spectrophotometry for ions and with UV-spectrophotometry for cathepsin D. Our results demonstrate that ions conserve their diagnostic ability to differentiate vital from postmortem wounds after the influence of putrefaction. Nevertheless, cathepsin D does not show this ability in these experimental conditions.