Forensic microbiology applications: A systematic review

• Published in: Legal medicine (Tokyo, Japan) Vol. 36; pp. 73 - 80
• Main Authors: Ventura Spagnolo, Elvira, Stassi, Chiara, Mondello, Cristina, Zerbo, Stefania, Milone, Livio, Argo, Antonina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier B.V 01.02.2019
• Subjects: Forensic microbiology; Postmortem bacterial flora; Postmortem microbiology; Thanatomicrobiome; Thanatomicrobiome; Forensic microbiology; Postmortem bacterial flora; Postmortem microbiology
• ISSN: 1344-6223; 1873-4162
• DOI: 10.1016/j.legalmed.2018.11.002

•This is a focus on the main studies on forensic use of microbiological investigations.•Forensic microbiology needed standardized protocols to improve the practical applications.•Forensic microbiology could be a useful tool to assess the cause of death.•Forensic microbiology could help the post-mortem interval evaluation. According to the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), a healthy human body contains ten times more microbes than human cells. Microbial communities colonize different organs of the body, playing fundamental roles both in human health and disease. Despite the vast scientific knowledge of the role of microbial communities in a living body, little is known at present about microbial changes occurring after death, thus leading many authors to investigate the composition of the thanatomicrobiome and its potential applications in the forensic field. The aim of the following review is to provide a general overview of the advances of postmortem microbiology research, mainly focusing on the role of microbiological investigations carried out on internal organs and fluids. To this end, a total of 19 studies have been sistematically reviewed, each one chosen according to specific inclusion/exclusion criteria. The selected studies assess the contribution of contamination, postmortem transmigration and agonal spread to microbial isolation from dead body samples, and shed light on the role of postmortem microbiological investigations in several forensic fields, such as cause of death or PMI determination.