A Blue Spectral Shift of the Hemoglobin Soret Band Correlates with the Age (Time Since Deposition) of Dried Bloodstains
Open Access
- 20 September 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLOS ONE
- Vol. 5 (9), e12830
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012830
Abstract
The ability to determine the time since deposition of a bloodstain found at a crime scene could prove invaluable to law enforcement investigators, defining the time frame in which the individual depositing the evidence was present. Although various methods of accomplishing this have been proposed, none has gained widespread use due to poor time resolution and weak age correlation. We have developed a method for the estimation of the time since deposition (TSD) of dried bloodstains using UV-VIS spectrophotometric analysis of hemoglobin (Hb) that is based upon its characteristic oxidation chemistry. A detailed study of the Hb Soret band (λmax = 412 nm) in aged bloodstains revealed a blue shift (shift to shorter wavelength) as the age of the stain increases. The extent of this shift permits, for the first time, a distinction to be made between bloodstains that were deposited minutes, hours, days and weeks prior to recovery and analysis. The extent of the blue shift was found to be a function of ambient relative humidity and temperature. The method is extremely sensitive, requiring as little as a 1 µl dried bloodstain for analysis. We demonstrate that it might be possible to perform TSD measurements at the crime scene using a portable low-sample-volume spectrophotometer.Keywords
This publication has 28 references indexed in Scilit:
- Changes in Dry State Hemoglobin over Time Do Not Increase the Potential for Oxidative DNA Damage in Dried BloodPLOS ONE, 2009
- Melanocyte biology and skin pigmentationNature, 2007
- A Three–Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism Haplotype in Intron 1 of OCA2 Explains Most Human Eye-Color VariationAmerican Journal of Human Genetics, 2007
- Genetics and Genomics of Core Short Tandem Repeat Loci Used in Human Identity TestingJournal of Forensic Sciences, 2006
- Genetic Dissection of Human Stature in a Large Sample of Multiplex PedigreesAnnals of Human Genetics, 2004
- Genetics of Hair and Skin ColorAnnual Review of Genetics, 2003
- Identification of fetal hemoglobin and simultaneous estimation of bloodstain age by high-performance liquid chromatographyInternational journal of legal medicine, 1991
- The estimation of blood stain age from the spectrophotometric properties of ammoniacal blood stain extractsForensic Science, 1973
- Estimation of the age of dried blood stains by a spectrophotometric methodForensic Science, 1972
- FORMATION OF HEMICHROMES FROM OXIDIZED HEMOGLOBIN SUBUNITS*Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1969