Identification of osteocalcin as a permanent aging constituent of the bone matrix: basis for an accurate age at death determination

Determining ‘age at death’ for forensic purposes using human bone by a laboratory-based biomechanical analytical method

“…This method is very laboratory and protocol-dependent [17], and achieves an average accuracy of ±5 years in bone tissue and ±3 years at best in perfectly preserved teeth. An age-dependent accumulation of D-aspartic acid has also been demonstrated in bone osteocalcin [16], which has led to age estimations within ±5 years (at a 95% prediction interval for the data). However, as a forensic technique, aspartic acid racemisation is complex, slow and inherently inaccurate for mature female remains [15].…”

“…The aspartic acid racemisation technique for age estimation [13], first developed in 1979, has been tried and tested in the archaeological and forensic context [14][15][16]. This method is very laboratory and protocol-dependent [17], and achieves an average accuracy of ±5 years in bone tissue and ±3 years at best in perfectly preserved teeth.…”

Archaeological collagen: Why worry about collagen diagenesis?

“…Aspartic acid racemisation therefore served as a marker for the extent of helical integrity in the individual CNBr-fragments. Standard hydrolysis conditions for age estimation in a forensic context, of 6 h at 100°C, were chosen to minimize the induced racemisation of aspartic acid during hydrolysis (Ritz et al 1993(Ritz et al , 1994(Ritz et al , 1996. During preparative hydrolysis asparagine undergoes rapid irreversible deamination to aspartic acid (Hill 1965).…”

How reliable are immunological tools for the detection of ancient proteins in fossil bones?

“…-purification of specific bone proteins for amino acid racemization studies (e.g. Ritz et al, 1996). -adding a historical dimension to population genetics by detecting the distribution pattern of polymorphic serum proteins in ancient human populations.…”