Molecular methods for age estimation: The current state of the art in relation to specific demands of forensic practice

With the increase of globalization and migration, the topic of age estimation has become more and more important in diverse fields of application, especially for age estimation in living individuals as well as for age estimation in the identification of unknown deceased and of unknown donors of a trace. Especially in the last decade, the traditional spectrum of morphological methods has been expanded to numerous new approaches based on the use of age-dependent molecular changes. Articles in this field have been and are being published in quick succession but not all approaches can (already) meet the demands of forensic practice. It may be a challenge for the forensic practitioner to keep track of suitable methods and to find the optimal method for a single case with its specific questions, conditions and requirements. This overview is intended to provide orientation on the question of which molecular approaches can already be used or will be applicable in the foreseeable future in different application fields. The focus is on the accumulation of D‑aspartic acid and pentosidine, DNA methylation and the use of the bomb pulse-derived carbon-14 (14C).