The concentration of glucose in the vitreous humor serves as an important diagnostic marker for diabetic mellitus in post-mortem examinations, as the vitreous humor can be easily collected and the glucose test using vitreous humor is not significantly affected by cell autolysis and hemolysis. For a quick and effective glucose test, we suggest a dipstick test of the vitreous humor during autopsy. The results were evaluated and compared with other methods for significance testing. In this study, vitreous humor was analyzed from 257 autopsy cases. Qualitative concordance rate of the dipstick test for glucose and the hexokinase test was 98.7%, positive prediction rate was 89.6%, and negative prediction rate was 100%. However, there was no significant correlation between the dipstick glucose test and the hexokinase test. We conclude that the dipstick glucose test is effective and useful for post-mortem glucose screening testing and for additional post-mortem diabetes testing. Recently, the importance of post-mortem glucose testing has increased with the increase in deaths from diabetes complications. The use of the dipstick glucose test in autopsy practice can improve forensic medicine in Korea.
Autolysis ; Autopsy* ; Diabetes Complications ; Forensic Medicine ; Glucose* ; Hemolysis ; Hexokinase ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Vitreous Body

The intrauterine retention time (IURT) after fetal death can be estimated from the loss of nuclear basophilia. We therefore attempted to derive an autolysis equation to estimate IURT in experimental rat fetuses and human fetal autopsy slides. The degree of loss of nuclear basophilia in various tissues was assessed by hematoxylin and eosin (H & E) staining. Fetal rat tissues showed different rates of autolysis, allowing for the construction of an experimental autolysis curve. We also reviewed the H & E stained slides obtained from 27 human fetal autopsy cases with well-documented death intervals. The degree of autolysis in various tissues was evaluated using percentile scores (PS). Using the findings from H&E staining, we derived the equation Ln (PS/[100-PS]) = 2.62716-0.02377 x IURT. However, this equation or autolysis scores showed some limitations. Owing to the inconsistency of PS, this equation is reliably applicable only within 24 hours of intrauterine fetal death. In the fetal autopsy review, fetal hydrops, local effusion, and sepsis also contributed to accelerated autolysis.
Animals ; Autolysis ; Autopsy ; Eosine Yellowish-(YS) ; Fetal Death* ; Fetus ; Hematoxylin ; Humans ; Hydrops Fetalis ; Rats ; Sepsis

Autolysis, which is brought about by the release of lysosomal hydrolytic enzymes, has been prevented in cornea with the use of lysosomal membrane stabilizers, such as corticosteroid. So, we performed this study to see whether corticosteroid could reduce endothelial damage in stored corneas, or not. The experiment was performed on 15 albino rabbits which were killed by intravenous air injection. 40 microgram of hydrocortisone sodium succinate was injected into the anterior chamber of the enucleated eye. The whole eye ball was stored in the moist chamber at 4 degrees C for 24 hours, 48 hours, or 72 hours, then the cornea was removed and stained with trypan blue. Unstained endothelial cells were counted with light microscope to determine the density of viable endothelial cells. Same procedures were done on the contralateral eye with injecting normal saline into the anterior chamber instead of hydrocortisone as a control. The density of viable endothelial cells in the steroid group was higher than that in the control group by 1.75%, 14.39%, and 27.40% in 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours storage, respectively.
Anterior Chamber ; Autolysis ; Cornea* ; Endothelial Cells* ; Hydrocortisone ; Membranes ; Rabbits ; Sodium ; Succinic Acid ; Trypan Blue

Autolysis, which is brought about by the release of lysosomal hydrolytic enzymes, has been prevented in cornea with the use of lysosomal membrane stabilizers, such as corticosteroid. So, we performed this study to see whether corticosteroid could reduce endothelial damage in stored corneas, or not. The experiment was performed on 15 albino rabbits which were killed by intravenous air injection. 40 microgram of hydrocortisone sodium succinate was injected into the anterior chamber of the enucleated eye. The whole eye ball was stored in the moist chamber at 4 degrees C for 24 hours, 48 hours, or 72 hours, then the cornea was removed and stained with trypan blue. Unstained endothelial cells were counted with light microscope to determine the density of viable endothelial cells. Same procedures were done on the contralateral eye with injecting normal saline into the anterior chamber instead of hydrocortisone as a control. The density of viable endothelial cells in the steroid group was higher than that in the control group by 1.75%, 14.39%, and 27.40% in 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours storage, respectively.
Anterior Chamber ; Autolysis ; Cornea* ; Endothelial Cells* ; Hydrocortisone ; Membranes ; Rabbits ; Sodium ; Succinic Acid ; Trypan Blue

Yeast autolysis under solid-state fermentation can effectively promote the release of various active substances, thereby improving the quality of yeast products. The optimal process for yeast autolysis under solid-state fermentation was obtained by optimizing the autolysis temperature, autolysis time and the zinc ion concentration. We analyzed the indexes of free amino acid, soluble protein and α-amino nitrogen in the fermentation material, as well as A₂₆₀/A₂₈₀ ratio to determine yeast autolysis process conditions in the solid-state fermentation. On the basis of the obtained data, L₉ (3³) orthogonal test was designed to optimize the solid-state fermentation parameters for yeast autolysis: temperature at 40, 50 and 55 °C; time 12, 18 and 24 h; zinc ion concentration 2, 4 and 8 mg/kg. The optimum process conditions for yeast autolysis were: autolysis temperature 55 °C, time 18 h, zinc ion concentration 2 mg/kg, and soluble protein content reached 9.31 mg/g, free amino acid 14.36 mg/g, α-amino nitrogen 10.16 μg/g and A₂₆₀/A₂₈₀ 1.73. After optimization of the process, the soluble protein, free amino acid and α-amino nitrogen contents of the yeast autolysis production can be significantly increased, thereby obviously improving the quality of the composite culture.
Amino Acids ; Autolysis ; Fermentation ; Humans ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Nitrogen ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae ; Temperature

The autolysis of brewer's yeast seriously affects the quality of beer and the quality of yeast is considered as one of the key factors in beer brewing. Previous studies on brewer's yeast autolysis showed that RLM1 gene, an important transcription factor in cell integrity pathway, is closely related to the autolysis of yeast. In this study, RLM1 was knocked out and overexpressed in a haploid brewer's yeast. RLM1 disruption resulted in poor anti-autolysis performance of yeast, whereas overexpression of RLM1 contributed to the anti-autolytic ability of yeast. In addition, RLM1 gene knockout affected the osmotic stress resistance, cell wall damage resistance, nitrogen starvation resistance and temperature tolerance of yeast strain. The transcriptional level of GAS1 involved in cell wall assembly and DNA damage response was regulated along with the expression of RLM1, whereas other genes in CWI pathway did not show apparent regularity. RLM1 might mainly affect the expression of GAS1 so as to improve the stress resistance of lager yeast in harsh environment. The result from this study help further understand the mechanism of yeast autolysis and lay a foundation for breeding brewer's yeast strain with better anti-autolytic ability.
Autolysis ; Beer ; Cell Wall ; Humans ; MADS Domain Proteins ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins

Yeast autolysis affects the flavor and quality of beer. The regulation of yeast autolysis is a need for industrial beer production. Previous studies on brewer's yeast autolysis showed that the citric acid cycle-related genes had a great influence on yeast autolysis. To explore the contribution of isocitrate dehydrogenase genes in autolysis, the IDP1 and IDP2 genes were destroyed or overexpressed in typical lager yeast Pilsner. The destruction of IDP1 gene improved the anti-autolytic ability of yeast, and the anti-autolytic index after 96 h autolysis was 8.40, 1.5 times higher than that of the original strain. The destruction of IDP1 gene increased the supply of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) and the NADPH/NADP⁺ ratio was 1.94. After fermentation, intracellular ATP level was 1.8 times higher than that of the original strain, while reactive oxygen species (ROS) was reduced by 10%. The destruction of IDP2 gene resulted in rapid autolysis and a decrease in the supply of NADPH. Anti-autolytic index after 96 h autolysis was 4.03 and the NADPH/NADP⁺ ratio was 0.89. After fermentation, intracellular ATP level was reduced by 8% compared with original strain, ROS was 1.3 times higher than that of the original strain. The results may help understand the regulation mechanism of citric acid cycle-related genes on yeast autolysis and provide a basis for the selection of excellent yeast with controllable anti-autolytic performance.
Humans ; Isocitrate Dehydrogenase/genetics* ; NADP ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; Autolysis ; Adenosine Triphosphate

Each three rabbit corneas were stored in McCarey-Kaufman medium at 4 degrees C for 5, 9 and 14 days and used as donor materials in 6mm partial penetrating corneal allografts. These results were compared to that group of penetrating keratoplasties with corneas stored conventional moist chamber at 4 degrees C for 5 days. All the M-K media stored corneas for 5 and 9 days were in clear graft after keratoplasty during the observation period of 6 months but the corneas stored for 14 days were developed eventvally irreversilde opaque after grafts. At 6 months after keratoplasties allthe rabbits eyes were enucleated and sectioned for histopathologic study of endothelia with the light and electron microscopes. Endothelia of the corneas stored for 5 and 9 days showed rarely endothelial degenerative changes. But the corneas stored up to 14 days showed significant changes including of disappearanee of most endothelial membranes and cytoplasms in light microscopies and swelling of nucleus, dispersed chromatin clump, multiple small and large vacuoles in cytoplasm and occasional autolysis of cytoplasm were observed in electron microscopies.
Allografts* ; Autolysis ; Chromatin ; Cornea* ; Corneal Transplantation ; Cytoplasm ; Humans ; Keratoplasty, Penetrating ; Membranes ; Microscopy ; Rabbits ; Tissue Donors ; Transplants ; Vacuoles

The acute myocardial infarction is the most important form of ischemic heart disease and alone is the leading cause of death in korea. But the postmortem diagnosis of early myocardial infarction has been a puzzling problem in forensic practice because in those cases where sudden deaths occur in the very early stage of infarction, the myocardial lesions cannot be easily detect. In the presented study, an immunohistochemical study of fibronectin(FN) was performed on formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissues obtained from 40 autopsy hearts to determine early myocardial infarction with strepavidin/biotin/peroxidase technique. Nine cases of definite myocardial infarction showed positive FN staining of cardiomyocytes: of 22 cases where early myocardial infarction was suspected, 16 cases showed positive FN staining of cardiomyocytes, but no such staining was seen in 9 non-cardiac death controls. The results led to the conclusion that positive FN staining of cardiomyocytes is a reliable marker of acute myocardial infarction and could be used a sensitive method for the postmortem diagnosis of early myocardial infarction. It seemed that FN was not affected by postmortem autolysis and formalin-fixation and could be used in routin forensic practice.
Autolysis ; Autopsy ; Cause of Death ; Death, Sudden ; Diagnosis* ; Fibronectins* ; Formaldehyde ; Heart ; Immunohistochemistry ; Infarction* ; Korea ; Myocardial Infarction ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Myocytes, Cardiac ; Paraffin

Cell autolysis plays important physiological roles in the life cycle of clostridial cells. Understanding the genetic basis of the autolysis phenomenon of pathogenic Clostridium or solvent producing Clostridium cells might provide new insights into this important species. Genes that might be involved in autolysis of Clostridium acetobutylicum, a model clostridial species, were investigated in this study. Twelve putative autolysin genes were predicted in C. acetobutylicum DSM 1731 genome through bioinformatics analysis. Of these 12 genes, gene SMB_G3117 was selected for testing the in tracellular autolysin activity, growth profile, viable cell numbers, and cellular morphology. We found that overexpression of SMB_G3117 gene led to earlier ceased growth, significantly increased number of dead cells, and clear electrolucent cavities, while disruption of SMB_G3117 gene exhibited remarkably reduced intracellular autolysin activity. These results indicate that SMB_G3117 is a novel gene involved in cellular autolysis of C. acetobutylicum.
Autolysis ; genetics ; Clostridium acetobutylicum ; genetics ; metabolism ; Computational Biology ; Genes, Bacterial ; N-Acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine Amidase ; genetics ; metabolism ; Temperature