Abstract: Objective To study the relationship between postmortem interval and the myofibril fragmentation index of skeletal muscle. Methods Rabbit skeletal muscle were left in the room temperature for different postmortem intervals, and the protein concentration of each sample was detected by using biuret method. Furthermore, the myofibril fragmentation index of each sample was measured under the protein concentration level of 0.5mg/mL. Results The myofibril fragmentation index increased obviously according to the postmortem interval prolongation. Conclusion The myofibril fragmentation index may be used on the estimation of early postmortem interval.

Key words: myofibril fragmentation index(MFI), postmortem interval(PMI), protein degradation