[Demonstration of heat shock protein, ubiquitin, in fire death autopsy cases by immunohistochemical study]

The expression of ubiquitin in heart, lung, liver, kidney and adrenal gland, was immunohistochemically studied in 23 autopsy cases died by fire accident. There were no correlations between the localization of ubiquitin in each organ, and burn extent, and burn degree, and carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) saturation. In serious tracheal burn cases, strong immunoreactivities of ubiquitin were observed in the lung. On the other hand, in cases of high concentration of cyanide, the ubiquitin immunostaining in the lungs was weak. These results indicate that in fire death cases, the expression of ubiquitin is affected by cyanide. In many cases strong immunoreactivities of ubiquitin were found in the adrenal glands, suggesting that the adrenal gland reacts strongly to the heat shock. Only three out of 23 autopsy cases showed the negative staining of ubiquitin immunoreactivity. Probably this is resulted from the early death prior to the expression of ubiquitin.