Abstract: Objective To explore the time-related expression of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 mRNA in the healing process of mouse skin wounds and its potential application in forensic wound age estimation. Methods Real-time PCR was used to quantify TGF-β1 mRNA expression in mouse skin wounds induced at different time points (15 min to 2 weeks before and 1 to 6 h after death). The expression of GAPDH was also detected for normalization of TGF-β1 mRNA level. Results TGF-β1 mRNA in the antemortem wounds was elevated significantly 24 h after the injury (P<0.01 by Dunnet test) and maintained the high level at 48 and 72 h. In postmortem wounds, TGF-β1 mRNA tended to increase 1 and 3 h after injury, and decreased to the control level at 6 h. Conclusions The expression of TGF-β1 mRNA is closely related to the time of wound and can therefore be used as a representative cytokine marker for dating the skin wounds induced over 6 h before death. Real-time PCR for detecting dynamic expression of TGF-β1 mRNA in wound healing process provides a reliable means for qualitative and quantitative cytokine analysis for forensic wound age estimation.