Analysis of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in dentine: useful for age estimation?

Abstract

Ageing of the human organism results in the accumulation of modified molecules. Some of these molecular changes may be used for age estimation, as already shown for aspartic acid racemization (AAR). Another example for an accumulation of damaged molecules is advanced glycation end products (AGEs). We examined, (1) if the correlation between the concentration of AGEs (pentosidine) in root dentine and age is close enough to be used as basis for age estimation, and (2) if the combined analysis of AGEs and AAR in dentine may be a useful approach to rule out or to detect relevant effects of confounding factors in age estimation. We determined the pentosidine content of root dentine samples of 64 healthy teeth as well as in carious, "pink", diabetic and heated teeth, and in teeth after different storage times. In 23 teeth, the extent of aspartic acid racemization (AAR) was determined in parallel. We observed a close relationship between the concentration of pentosidine in dentine and chronological age (r = 0.94) in healthy teeth. The analysis of pentosidine in dentine can theoretically be used as a basis for age estimation in healthy teeth of non-diabetic individuals; diabetic individuals may exhibit very high pentosidine levels in dentine. This finding limits the application of this method, since information regarding the question if an unidentified person suffered from diabetes mellitus or not are missing in most cases. Moreover, the method is not suitable to identify or rule out the influence of confounding factors in age estimation based on AAR, since both methods are sensible to the most relevant confounding factors (caries, heat).

Modulatory Effect of Glycated Collagen on Oral Streptococcal Nanoadhesion

“…Besides being an important mechanism of the aging process, collagen glycation is relevant in pathologic conditions such as diabetes mellitus, due to the increased levels of glucose within tissues (Snedeker and Gautieri 2014). Recent research has suggested that dentin is also affected by AGE-mediated crosslinking, as increased levels of AGEs were found in older people (Shinno et al 2016; Greis et al 2018). However, the influence of these glycation-induced collagen modifications on oral streptococcal attachment onto surfaces and subsequent biofilm formation remains unknown.…”

Estimation of Chronological Age from Advanced Glycation End Products Level in Vitreous Fluid

“…The PE/QE ratio showed moderate negative correlation with the chronological age. The correlation of the QE and PE level in vitreous were lower than teeth, cartilage, and bone samples 5,18 . The turnover rate of protein might be effect to the AGEs and pentosidine level in tissues.…”

“…The AGEs level contained in teeth were highly correlated with chronological age 5 . However, the teeth samples were difficult for sample preparation.…”

“…Accumulation of the AGEs in tissues including serum, teeth, cartilage and skin are progressive during the lifetime 3 . The AGEs levels have been associated with aging process and correlated with age in volunteers, but AGEs levels in postmortem case is limited 4,5 .…”

Forensic transcriptome analysis using massively parallel sequencing

“…In general, aging is the gradual decline of physiological functions leading to age-dependent fitness loss, diseases and eventually mortality[99]. The process of aging is J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f characterized, and likely influenced, by gradual alterations of biomolecules such as telomere repeat length, mitochondrial DNA mutations, accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), decline in signal joint T-cell receptor rearrangement excision circles (sjTRECs), aspartic acid racemization (AAR), epigenetic modifications and gene expression changes during the human lifespan[95,[100][101][102][103][104][105][106]. Among these age-associated biomarkers, epigenetic aging clocks represent the most accurate models for age prediction so far and have therefore attracted attention in the forensic field[107][108][109].…”