1. Forensic significance of intracardiac heme oxygenase-1 expression in acute myocardial ischemia
- Author
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Yumi Kuninaka, Toshikazu Kondo, Yuko Ishida, Fukumi Furukawa, Mitsunori Ozaki, Akira Taruya, Akihiko Kimura, Emi Shimada, Hiroki Yamamoto, Akiko Ishigami, and Mizuho Nosaka
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Pathology ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Forensic pathology ,Science ,Myocardial Ischemia ,Intracardiac injection ,Pallor ,Article ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Medical research ,Cause of Death ,medicine ,Leukocytes ,Humans ,Myocardial infarction ,Forensic Pathology ,Cause of death ,Aged ,Aged, 80 and over ,Multidisciplinary ,business.industry ,Myocardium ,Diagnostic markers ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,Heme oxygenase ,Myoglobin ,chemistry ,Case-Control Studies ,Acute Disease ,Immunohistochemistry ,Medicine ,Female ,Autopsy ,medicine.symptom ,business ,Biomarkers ,Heme Oxygenase-1 - Abstract
Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), an inducible stress-response protein, exerts anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic effects. However, its significance in forensic diagnosis of acute ischemic heart diseases (AIHD) such as myocardial infarction (MI) is still unknown. We examined the immunohistochemical expression of HO-1 in the heart samples to discuss their forensic significance to determine acute cardiac ischemia. The heart samples were obtained from 23 AIHD cases and 33 non-AIHD cases as controls. HO-1 positive signals in cardiomyocyte nuclear were detected in 78.2% of AIHD cases, however, that were detected in only 24.2% control cases with statistical difference between AIHD and non-AIHD groups. In contrast to HO-1 protein expression, there was no significant difference in the appearance of myoglobin pallor regions and leukocyte infiltration in the hearts between AIHD and non-AIHD groups. From the viewpoints of forensic pathology, intracardiac HO-1 expression would be considered a valuable marker to diagnose AIHD as the cause of death.
- Published
- 2021