Laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry of triacylglycerides and other components in fingerprint samples

This work focused on the analysis of fingerprint samples containing triacylglycerides (TAGs) and other components using laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (LDI-TOF) mass spectrometry for structure elucidation and gender analysis. This type of analysis could be useful for forensic cases in which pattern recognition was of poor quality or for disease indicators or biomarkers. This procedure allowed short analysis times because no matrix was used and very little sample preparation was required. A tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) method allowed identification of some TAGs by fragmentation. Spectra were compared for gender studies based on relative and absolute intensities. Among gender comparison, two TAGs were found to be significant at 95% and two other TAGs at 97.5% significance using a t-distribution. The degradation rate of a fingerprint was also studied along with the cosmetic ingredients present in some samples. Both of these studies could be very useful in a forensic setting for determination of a fingerprint's age and identity of cosmetic products contained within a sample.