Renal expression of Hsp27, 60, and 70 in cases of fatal hypothermia

A Wegner; J Ulbricht; B Madea; E Doberentz

doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2022.111200

Renal expression of Hsp27, 60, and 70 in cases of fatal hypothermia

Forensic Sci Int. 2022 Mar:332:111200. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2022.111200. Epub 2022 Jan 19.

Authors

A Wegner¹, J Ulbricht¹, B Madea¹, E Doberentz²

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Bonn, Stiftsplatz 12, 53111 Bonn, Germany.
² Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Bonn, Stiftsplatz 12, 53111 Bonn, Germany. Electronic address: edoberentz@ukbonn.de.

PMID: 35078040
DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2022.111200

Abstract

Macromorphological findings can be missing in cases of fatal hypothermia when the agonal period is very short because of a large difference between environmental and core body temperatures. Expression of heat shock proteins (Hsps) increases under endogenous and exogenous cellular stresses such as thermal stress. These stress proteins can be revealed by immunohistochemical staining. Forty-five cases of death due to hypothermia and a control group of 100 deaths without any antemortem thermal stress were examined for Hsp27, 60, and 70 expression in renal tissue because renal tissue is sensitive to cellular stress. The results revealed no significant difference between Hsp27, 60, and 70 expression in both groups (28.8% positive staining in the study group and 19.0% positive staining in the control group), which is contradictory to a previous study on expression of Hsp70 in renal tissue in cases of fatal hypothermia. Hence, it is currently unclear whether immunohistochemical staining of Hsps supports a morphological diagnosis of fatal hypothermia.

Keywords: Autopsy; Fatal hypothermia; Heat shock proteins; Immunohistochemistry; Kidney; Morphological signs.