Assessment of age according to racemization coefficient of aspartic acid in dentin is considered a reliable method. Proteins which are isolated from dentin are non-collagenous proteins or collagen. As collagen is one of the most frequent proteins in the human body, the question arises whether the D-form of aspartic acid can be assessed also in other tissues and the racemization coefficient used for assessment of age. In the submitted work the author assessed to use the racemization coefficient in the tissue of the intervertebral disk. A lyophilized portion of the annulus fibrosus was hydrolyzed and the amino acids of the hydrolysate were estimated after derivation by gas chromatography on a chiral capillary column. The values of the racemization coefficient indicate limited possibilities to assess age from thus prepared tissue.

        Key words: assessment of age - intervertebral disk - racemization of aspartic acid - chiral amino acid separation