Sex Determination by Observation of Barr Body in Teeth Subjected to High Temperatures

Abstract

Sex determination is one of the keys in the identification process. A useful histological method for sex determination is the observation of Barr chromatin or Barr body. This study determines the effect of high temperatures on the diagnostic performance of the Barr chromatin observation on teeth. Were used 50 healthy teeth from 25 male and 25 female individuals aged between 14 and 44 years. The teeth were divided into 5 groups (each group with 5 female and 5 male teeth) and were exposed to controlled temperatures of 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 degrees C for 5 minutes. The coronal pulp was obtained and the tissue was processed and stained with hematoxylin-eosin. Four histological slides of male and 4 of female individuals were randomly selected, for each temperature level, which were observed by conventional microscopy at 100X magnification, each showing 50 cells per plate. The presence of 1 cell with visible sex chromatin was considered positive for females. It was only possible to evaluate the samples from groups subjected to 200 and 400 degrees C. In the groups analyzed, the test showed 100% accuracy. The average number of cells found to be positive Barr chromatin was 15 (SD 3.9) at 200 degrees C and 11 (SD 2.8) at 400 degrees C. Hence, it was possible to detect the sex at these temperatures by observing chromatin of the Barr body in dental pulp.