Differentiation of vaginal cells from epidermal cells using morphological and autofluorescence properties: Implications for sexual assault casework involving digital penetration |
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Affiliation: | 1. Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, 23284, USA;2. Ontario Centre of Forensic Sciences, Toronto, Canada |
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Abstract: | This work explores morphological and autofluorescence differences between vaginal and epidermal cells detectable through Imaging Flow Cytometry (IFC), a non-destructive, high-throughput technique. These differences were used to build a predictive framework for classifying unknown cells as originating from vaginal or epidermal tissue, which was tested on hand swabbings with and without digital penetration. Many more cells possessing a vaginal signature (median posterior probability ≥0.90) were detected in digital penetration samples than control hand swabbings. Minimum interpretation thresholds were developed to minimize/eliminate false positives; these thresholds were also effective when screening licked hands, indicating the potential utility of this method for a variety of biological mixture types and depositional events relevant to forensic casework. |
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Keywords: | Biological mixtures Imaging flow cytometry Digital penetration Vaginal Epidermal Sexual assault |
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