Yuxin Pan, Yehui Lv, Jiuhong Zhao, Fang Tong
Forensic wound age estimation holds significant importance for criminal investigation and judicial identification. However, accurately deducing the time of injury remains a tricky point. In recent years, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have emerged as novel biomarkers, demonstrating great potential for estimating the age of skin and skeletal muscle wounds. This narrative review focuses on the regulatory roles of microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs) in wound healing and their forensic applications. We analyze and predict potential ncRNA indicators that could serve as biomarkers for wound age estimation in these tissues. In addition, this review integrates literature on skin and muscle injuries, which are usually treated separately, to provide a unified resource for forensic practitioners. Studies have shown that miRNAs exhibit dynamic expression patterns during wound healing and can be used to establish systems for wound age estimation. Meanwhile, lncRNAs and circRNAs are becoming the new focal points in forensic wound age estimation due to their tissue-specific and time-dependent expression characteristics. Moreover, the application of machine learning technologies provides innovative solutions for the development and prediction of ncRNA biomarkers. Nevertheless, the forensic application of ncRNAs still faces numerous challenges, such as limitations in sample sources, the complexity of expression regulatory mechanisms, and technical constraints. Future research should further explore the relationship between ncRNA expression dynamics and wound age and optimize methods for biomarker screening and validation to achieve more accurate and reliable tools for forensic wound age estimation.