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PMI assessment frequently requires the application of the currently available methods which can lead to unsatisfactory results due to the poor accuracy of time interval estimation. To address these concerns, the present study aimed to evaluate whether there is a correlation between human hair proteolysis and PMI. Scalp hair samples of three living donors and eleven individuals exhumed from different burial types from Portuguese cemeteries were analysed by ATR-FTIR (attenuated total reflectance \u2013 Fourier-transform infrared). Four band areas and three hair degradation indices were considered in the 2000\u20131000\u00a0cm<jats:sup>\u22121<\/jats:sup> spectral region. When analysing the entire dataset (i.e., 126 infrared spectra) \u2013 and when separating and analysing the spectroscopic data by burial type \u2013 the ratio between amide II (\u223c1550\u00a0cm<jats:sup>\u22121<\/jats:sup>) and S\u2009=\u2009O and SO<jats:sub>3<\/jats:sub> combined (\u223c1074\u00a0cm<jats:sup>\u22121<\/jats:sup> and \u223c1043\u00a0cm<jats:sup>\u22121<\/jats:sup>, respectively) suggests there is a correlation between hair proteolysis and PMI (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009&lt;\u20090.05). Nevertheless, it is recommended that a larger dataset is required to confirm the preliminary results obtained in this study and to explore how this correlation can be used to estimate PMI in forensic casework.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s00414-025-03476-4","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,29]],"date-time":"2025-03-29T02:28:04Z","timestamp":1743215284000},"page":"1913-1923","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Exploring human hair degradation: A preliminary study for estimating time-since-death"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"139","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1336-0446","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Angela","family":"Silva-Bessa","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5152-4416","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Stuart","family":"Ramage","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2437-7780","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria Teresa","family":"Ferreira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7430-6297","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ricardo Jorge","family":"Dinis-Oliveira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7416-0080","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shari L.","family":"Forbes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8125-2458","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lorna","family":"Dawson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"3476_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"309","DOI":"10.1007\/s00414-021-02641-9","volume":"136","author":"A Baptista","year":"2022","unstructured":"Baptista A, Pedrosa M, Curate F, Ferreira MT, Marques MPM (2022) Estimation of the post-mortem interval in human bones by infrared spectroscopy. 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