The differentiation of an adult's bloodstain from that of a child using an indirect fluorescent antibody technique.
A procedure is described for the detection of specific antimicrobial antibodies in bloodstains. The technique is described and the relationship between antibody concentration and the age of the doner is reported. It is shown that, provided foetal blood can be excluded, an unknown bloodstain may be identified as that of a person over 15 years with a high degree of confidence.
Author contributions ::: ::: GH helped design the study, establish the animal model, collect and analyze samples, and write the manuscript. YY and DH helped establish the animal model, performed Western blotting, immunohistochemistry analyses. YY and DH also helped analyse data and revise the manuscript. QYW and JK contributed to study planning, analyse and interpret data, review and revise the manuscript. All authors have approved the final version of this article to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring the questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work. ::: ::: ::: ::: Disclosure ::: ::: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.