Journal of Forensic Research

Usability of Histological Assessment of Cerebellar Granule Cell Layer Regardless of Postmortem Interval

Abstract

Satomu Morita, Satoshi Furukawa, Akari Takaya, Ikuo Sakagushi, Hayato Okunaga, Tokiko Nakagawa, Lisa Wingenfeld and Katsuji Nishi

We often encounter many decomposed cases in the forensic science fields. Damage to organs by bacteria
complicates our diagnosis, examination and study. The central nerve system is one of the most hardly decomposed organs. The cerebellar granule cell layer (GCL) is useful for some investigation.
We histologically evaluated cerebellar GCL of decomposed and fresh cases using Photoshop™ application. No statistical difference was found between two groups. In addition, we grouped by agonal situation and histologically evaluated cerebellar GCL. We could only show the statistical difference between carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning and house fire because of shortage number of some groups, but the comparison of the box plots suggested some relations between GCL and agonal situation.
We suggest conservation of histological findings of cerebellar GCL regardless of postmortem interval and usability for detecting agonal situation.