Abstract: Objective To study the relationship between the content of glycogen in gastrocnemius of rat and postmortem interval (PMI). Methods The gastronomies muscles were collected at 0,0.5,1,1.5,2,3,4,6,8,12,18 and 24 hours from rats sacrificed by bleeding, suffocating, and neck breaking, respectively. The changes of glycogen content in these muscles were analyzed by PAS staining and imaging technique. Results The content of glycogen in the rat's gastrocnermius muscle showed a continuous linear decrease in correlation with prolonged postmortem intervals. Conclusion Our data suggest that the changes of glycogen content in rat's gastrocnemius can be used as one of the references for estimation of the postmortem interval.

Key words: gastrocnemius, glycogen, postmortem interval, forensic medicine