Individual identification by measuring the human skeleton is an important research in the field of forensic anthropology. Computed tomography （CT） technology can provide high-resolution image of skeleton. Skeleton image can be reformed by software in the post-processing workstation. Different skeleton measurement indexes of anthropology, such as diameter, angle, area and volume, can be measured on section and reformative images. Measurement process is barely affected by human factors. This paper reviews the literatures at home and abroad about the application of measuring skeleton by CT in forensic anthropology research for individual identification in four aspects, including sex determination, height infer, facial soft tissue thickness measurement and age estimation. The major technology and the application of CT in forensic anthropology research are compared and discussed, respectively.
Age Determination by Skeleton ; Bone and Bones/diagnostic imaging* ; Forensic Anthropology/trends* ; Humans ; Sex Determination Analysis ; Software ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods*

Burned bones have their unique characteristics in investigation of fire disaster/crimes, airplane disaster, explosion and other accidents. To study the morphological changes of skeletal tissue and DNA changes at different incinerating temperature might provide precise standard means to determine genera, sex, and age. Genetic locus was also applied in the above fields. The techniques to extract and detect of DNA in burning bones have been improved in recent years. In this article investigation advancement of analysis of burned bones with the morphology, histology, and molecular biology as well as the latest methods and techniques were reviewed. These results provide a new approach for further research and practice in forensic medicine.
Age Determination by Skeleton/methods* ; Animals ; Bone and Bones/pathology* ; Burns/pathology* ; DNA/analysis* ; Forensic Anthropology/methods* ; Hot Temperature ; Humans ; Sex Determination by Skeleton/methods* ; Tandem Repeat Sequences ; Time Factors

The traditional costicartilage analysis inspection is limited to morphological inspection. In recent years, with the development of forensic radiology and molecular genetics, the costicartilage analysis inspection technology has been further enriched and developed. At present, the costicartilage analysis inspection technology have been able to be used in the practice of forensic medicine. This paper reviews the research advances about the costicartilage analysis inspection technology in the identification of human gender, age and so on in order to provide the references for forensic appraisers.
Age Determination by Skeleton/methods* ; Age Factors ; Calcification, Physiologic ; Cartilage/physiology* ; DNA/isolation & purification* ; DNA Fingerprinting/methods* ; Female ; Forensic Anthropology ; Forensic Medicine/methods* ; Humans ; Male ; Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods* ; Ribs/physiology* ; Sex Characteristics ; Sex Determination Analysis/methods*

Sex estimation is one of the crucial procedures in the biological profile identification of human skeletal remains. Knowing sex of unknown case can lead to accurate and appropriate methods for predicting age, stature, ancestry, or even personal identification. Skull is one of the most reliable one among other skeletons and it is usually retained for both archaeological and forensic contexts. Although many morphological features and metric measurements of skull have been studied for sexing, but to the best of our knowledge is no study on maxillary suture length for sex estimation. Therefore, this study aims to develop a new sex estimation method for a Thai population by determining three maxillary suture lengths: anterior, transverse, and posterior maxillary suture, by computerizing amount of pixel obtained from photographs of these sutures. The present study was conducted on 190 Thai bone samples of which 96 were males and 94 were females. Independent t test revealed statistically significant difference (P < 0.01) between males and females in all maxillary suture measurements. Equations derived from prediction model, which required three maxillary suture lengths gave 76.8421% accuracy from the leave-one-out cross validation in estimating sex percentage accuracies in predicting sex from these equations, which were relatively moderate. This study provides a novel and objective sex estimation method for Thais. It suggests that maxillary suture length can be applied for sex estimation. The new computerized technique will contribute basis knowledge and method for sex estimation, especially when only base of skull is available in forensic circumstance.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Cranial Sutures ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Methods* ; Sex Determination Analysis ; Skeleton ; Skull ; Skull Base ; Sutures* ; Thailand

OBJECTIVE: Five measurements of the calcaneus taken on digital radiography (DR) of adults of Han Population of Sichuan Province were selected to determine sex by multivariate discriminant analysis. METHODS: Lateral radiographs of calcaneus taken from 393 subjects were collected. The samples were randomly divided into the experimental group (148 males and 186 females) and the examined group (26 males and 33 females). Five measurements were taken from the radiography. The analysis of variance (AVON) was carried out to determine if there was significant difference between the male and female. The discriminant functions were drawn by Fisher discriminant analysis. The effects of all obtained functions were evaluated with the examined samples. RESULTS: There was statistically significant difference in the five measurements between the males and the females (P<0.05). Six groups of discriminant functions were obtained with an accuracy ranged from 78.4% to 88.9%. When applied on the examined samples, the sex discriminant accuracy varied from 79.7% to 86.4%. CONCLUSION These five measurements acquired from the lateral radiographs of calcaneus could be used for sex assessment during forensic identification of individuals.
Calcaneus/diagnostic imaging* ; Discriminant Analysis ; Female ; Forensic Anthropology/methods* ; Humans ; Male ; Radiographic Image Enhancement ; Sex Determination by Skeleton ; Young Adult

We describe a rapid and efficient diagnostic method for sex determination and the dystrophin gene by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using archived cytogenetic slides. Archived cytogenetic slides stored for about 4 years at room temperature were used. To confirm whether DNA analysis is possible using the archived cytogenetic slides, we extracted the DNA from the slides and amplified the Y centromeric region (DYZ3), the X centromeric region (DXZ1) and the exon 46 of the dystrophin gene. Of the 50 cases, 24 were peripheral bloods, 13 were amniotic fluid cells, 5 were chorionic villus samplings and 8 were cord bloods. The PCR related sex determination in 22 females and 28 males, showed 100% concordance with the results of chromosome analysis, and all cases showed positive band for the exon 46 of the dystrophin gene. Of the 50 cases of the archived cytogenetic slides, we were fortunate enough to obtain the fresh blood sample from one fetus whose karyotype showed 45,X[34]/46,X,+mar[145] to compare the results of the gDNA with that from archived cytogenetic slide. To confirm whether the marker chromosome was derived from Y chromosome, we studied the six loci (PABY, SRY, RPS4Y (SY16, 17), ZFY, DYS14) on the short arm, one locus (DYZ3) on the centromere and one locus (DYZ1) on the long arm. Of the 8 loci studies, all PCR related Y chromosome showed positive band from both gDNA obtained from cord blood and archived cytogenetic slides. We could conclude from the above results that the marker chromosome was derived from the Y chromosome. We believe our experiment is rapid and efficient for studies of over 10 independent loci from a single slide which has been kept in storage for up to 4 years and that archival Giemsa-stained cytogenetic slide repositories represent valuable DNA resources for clinical and forensic studies.
DNA/genetics ; DNA/analysis* ; Dystrophin/genetics* ; Female ; Human ; Male ; Muscular Dystrophies/genetics ; Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods* ; Sex Determination (Genetics)* ; Specimen Handling/methods* ; Time Factors

OBJECTIVEUsing nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to perform preimplantation gender diagnosis.

METHODSOne (or two) lymphocyte and blastomere (n=50/group) were collected and prepared under the following conditions: (1) water only (H(2)O); (2) freeze-thaw liquid nitrogen, then boiling; (3) potassium hydroxide/dithiotheriol, heated to 65 degree centigrade, followed by acid neutralization (KOH). Cells were analyzed by PCR using nested primers amplification with amelogenin gene.

RESULTSThe amplification rate and allele dropout (ADO) rate for male lymphocytes by the three methods were 83%, 94%, 95% and 24%, 12%, 4%, respectively. Using two cells per reaction did not increase the amplification rate for the KOH method.

CONCLUSIONThe KOH method for DNA preparation is superior to the other methods evaluated. Dual blastomere biopsy and independent blastomere analysis may improve preimplantation diagnostic reliability.

Amelogenin ; Blastocyst ; cytology ; metabolism ; Blastomeres ; cytology ; metabolism ; DNA ; genetics ; Dental Enamel Proteins ; genetics ; Female ; Genotype ; Humans ; Lymphocytes ; cytology ; metabolism ; Male ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; methods ; Sex Determination Analysis ; methods

Objective Logistic regression method was used to establish a multiple regression sex discriminant function to discriminate the complete skull model and the incomplete skull model without frontal bone, occipital bone and mandible of Uygur adults in Turpan, Xinjiang. Methods A total of 117 （60 male and 57 female） three-dimensional skull models were collected by CT. Sixteen cranial measurement indexes were measured and calculated by computer software. The multivariate regression sex discriminant function was established with Logistic regression method and retrospectively tested. Results Among the 16 measurement indexes, except for nose width （x₇） and maximum frontal breadth （x₁₃）, the remaining 14 indexes had statistical significance of differences between male and female （P<0.05）. For the discriminant function of complete skull established by eyebrow arch convexity （x₄）, mastoid width （x₆）, maximum cranial length （x₁₂）, cranial base length （x₁₅）, cranial circumference （x₁₆）, the male and female discrimination accuracy was 90.0% and 94.7%, respectively. For the sex discriminant function of incomplete skull without frontal bone established by mandibular angle width （x₁₀）, mandibular height （x₁₁） and cranial circumference （x₁₆）, the discrimination accuracy of male and female was 85.0% and 84.2%, respectively. For the sex discriminant function of incomplete skull without occipital bone established by the index of eyebrow arch convexity （x₄）, the discrimination accuracy of male and female was 80.0% and 73.7%, respectively. For the sex discriminant function of incomplete skull without mandible established by frontal chord （x₅） and occipital protrusion angle （x₉）, the discrimination accuracy of male and female was 85.0% and 78.9%, respectively. Conclusion The computer software and system developed in our study can achieve sex discrimination of complete skulls and incomplete skulls without frontal bone, occipital bone or mandible.
Adult ; China ; Discriminant Analysis ; Ethnicity ; Female ; Forensic Anthropology ; Humans ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; Jaw/diagnostic imaging* ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Sex Characteristics ; Sex Determination by Skeleton/methods* ; Skull/diagnostic imaging* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods*

Nine short tandem repeat (STR) markers (D3S1358, VWA, FGA, THO1, TPOX, CSFIPO, D5S818, D13S317, and D7S820) and a sex-identification marker (Amelogenin locus) were amplified with multiplex PCR and were genotyped with a four-color fluorescence method in samples from 174 unrelated Han individuals in North China. The allele frequencies, genotype frequencies, heterozygosity, probability of discrimination powers, probability of paternity exclusion and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium expectations were determined. The results demonstrated that the genotypes at all these STR loci in Han population conform to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium expectations. The combined discrimination power (DP) was 1.05 x 10(-10) within nine STR loci analyzed and the probability of paternity exclusion (EPP) was 0.9998. The results indicate that these nine STR loci and the Amelogenin locus are useful markers for human identification, paternity and maternity testing and sex determination in forensic sciences.
Amelogenin ; China ; Dental Enamel Proteins ; genetics ; Electrophoresis ; Ethnic Groups ; genetics ; Forensic Medicine ; methods ; Gene Frequency ; Genetics, Population ; Genotype ; Heterozygote ; Humans ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Sex Determination Analysis ; methods ; Tandem Repeat Sequences ; genetics

OBJECTIVE: Based on the sequence differences of Amelogenin homologous gene in the X and Y chromosomes, a pair of specific primers was designed to identify the sex of archaeological samples. METHODS: Ancient DNA fragments were extracted from the bones and teeth of sacrificial slaves with an improved method that combines phenol-chloroform extraction, silicon dioxide adsorption with ultrafiltration concentration. The polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) was used to detect PCR products. RESULTS: Seven in sixteen samples from eight graves showed positive results and the targeted segments were visible: a male with two bands of 106bp (Amel-X) and 112 bp (Amel-Y), while a female with only one band of 106 bp (Amel-X). Ancient DNA analyzing results from tooth samples are more marked than that from bones. CONCLUSION The improved extraction method is more effective for ancient DNA extraction, which reduced the PCR inhibitors and lowered experimental costs. The sex determination technology based on Amelogenin homologous gene is an important and feasible method in the molecular archaeological research.
Alleles ; Amelogenin/genetics* ; Archaeology ; Bone and Bones/metabolism* ; Chromosomes, Human, X ; Chromosomes, Human, Y ; DNA/isolation & purification* ; DNA Primers ; Dental Enamel Proteins/genetics* ; Female ; Gene Amplification ; Humans ; Male ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods* ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Sex Determination Analysis/methods* ; Tooth/metabolism*