Identification of skin bacterial profiles of early deceased bodies and the relation to post-mortem interval
https://doi.org/10.47665/tb.41.1.013
- Author:
Chong, C.K.
1
;
Emamjomeh, M.
1
;
Joseph, N.
1
;
Siew, S.F.
2
;
Maeda, T.
3
;
Mustapha, N.A.
3
;
Hoshiko, Y.
4
;
Muthanna, A.
5
;
Amin-Nordin, S.
1
Author Information
1. Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
2. Department of Forensic Medicine, Kuala Lumpur Hospital, 50586 Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
3. Department of Biological Functions Engineering, Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, 2-4 Hibikino, Wakamatsu-ku, Kitakyushu 808-0196 Japan
4. Department of Infectious Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine, 67 Asahi-Machi, Kurume-City, Fukuoka 830-0011 Japan
5. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Post-mortem microbiology;
sudden unexpected death;
post-mortem interval;
skin flora;
high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing.
- From:Tropical Biomedicine
2024;41(No.1):109-117
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Post-mortem microbiology (PMM) is an important tool in identifying possible causes of sudden
unexpected death, as an infectious cause is highly suspected. However, contamination is a major problem
in microbiology, and this has increased the difficulty determining the true pathogen that contributes to
death in post-mortem cases. Skin commensals are common contaminants in blood cultures. This study
was conducted to investigate the skin flora on early deceased bodies and observe the bacteria detected
at different post-mortem intervals (PMIs). As blood is usually drawn from the neck and femoral sites for
PMM examination, the two body sites were chosen as the sampling sites. Skin swab samples from the
neck and femoral (n=80) of each early deceased body were collected by sterile cotton swabs. DNA was
extracted from the swabs and then subjected to high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing by using the
Illumina MiSeq platform. Staphylococcus was found to be the most dominant genus in both neck and
femoral sites. LEfSe results showed that Cutibacterium is significantly different at the neck site while
Corynebacterium is more abundant at femoral site. There are significant differences at genus level
between PMI<5H and PMI>5H at both neck and femoral sites. The findings of the present study may
act as a reference for microbiologists and forensic pathologists when mixed growth or contamination
occurs in post-mortem blood cultures.
- Full text:20240716114446758668.2024my1459.pdf
