Forensic Context

A study in humans demonstrated that hsa-miR-203a-3p shows higher expression in vaginal secretion than in saliva and lower expression in blood and semen compared to saliva and vaginal secretion, acting as a marker for epithelial/mucosal cells in general [Sauer et al. DOI:10.1016/j.fsigen.2016.01.018]. A subsequent proof-of-principle study confirmed its role in body fluid identification, where it contributed to prediction models using probabilistic methods, with the miR-203a-3p's expression data enabling high-accuracy sample classification [Li et al. DOI:10.1007/s00414-021-02678-w]. A study in rats demonstrated that expression of the miR-203a-3p in iliopsoas muscle decreased with lower body temperature, and it directly regulated Socs3 expression via binding to its 3' UTR, forming part of a biological defense axis (rno-miR-203a-3p-Socs3-Casp3) that suppresses apoptosis under severe hypothermia [Umehara et al. DOI:10.1016/j.legalmed.2022.102150]. In human forensic science, the miR-203a-3p was identified as a candidate marker with expression in saliva and higher expression in vaginal secretion, contributing to the differentiation of these body fluids when used within a set of 12 microRNAs [Altmeyer et al. DOI:10.1002/elps.202400089].