Fibronectin
Definition
Glycoprotein deposited in wound matrix within 12-24 hours of antemortem injury. Detectable by immunostaining; serves as an intermediate-stage vital-reaction marker when PMN infiltration is equivocal.
- Molecule type
- Glycoprotein
- Deposition window
- 12 to 24 hours after antemortem injury
- Detection method
- Immunostaining
- Use case
- Intermediate vital-reaction marker when PMN infiltration is equivocal
Common questions
Why is fibronectin useful when PMN infiltration is ambiguous?+
Neutrophil infiltration can be hard to interpret in early or poorly preserved wounds, so fibronectin deposition, which appears on a separate identifiable timeline in the wound matrix, gives a second independent marker to help judge whether an injury was inflicted before death.
Does fibronectin alone establish that an injury is antemortem?+
Not by itself; it is one marker among several, including PMN infiltration and other vital-reaction indicators, that pathologists weigh together, since postmortem artefacts and decomposition can complicate a single-marker interpretation.
Related terms
- Agonal Period
- The final period of physiological life between loss of consciousness and cardiac arrest. Injuries inflicted in this period are legally antemortem but...
- Histamine Vital-Reaction Marker
- Biochemical indicator released from mast cells within minutes of tissue injury. A 50% or greater histamine elevation at the wound margin versus...
- Perimortem Window
- The brief interval before and immediately after cardiac arrest in which injuries may be inflicted during life but produce absent or minimal...
- PMN (Polymorphonuclear Neutrophil) Infiltration
- The first histological cellular marker of antemortem vital reaction. Begins emigrating from wound-margin venules within 1-2 hours of injury; histologically visible at...
- Vital Reaction
- The suite of physiological responses to tissue injury that require a functioning cardiovascular and cellular metabolism to occur: haemorrhage, neutrophil infiltration, vasoactive...