RESUMO
Background & objectives: In early stages of oral cancers, 20-40 per cent of cases have occult metastasis in cervical lymph nodes. Biologic imbalance between cellular proliferation and death culminates in metastasis. The importance of cell cycle dysregulation in relation to lymph node involvement in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has not been established yet. The aim was to determine the association between apoptotic bodies count and mitotic index in relation to regional lymph node involvement in OSCC. Methods: Thirty two methyl green-pyronin stained slides from paraffin-embedded sections of OSCC were evaluated for apoptotic bodies count and mitotic index in relation to regional lymph node involvement using light microscopy. Number of apoptotic bodies and mitotic figures were counted in 10 randomly selected hot spot areas (×400). Average count of apoptotic bodies and mitotic figures were determined and compared with regard to the presence/absence of lymph node involvement. Results: The count of apoptotic bodies in cases without metastasis to the regional lymph node was significantly higher than in cases with regional lymph node involvement. The mitotic index was not significantly different between groups in terms of regional lymph node involvement (P=0.24). No significant correlation was found between the apoptotic bodies count (r=?0.094, P=0.72) and mitotic index (r=?0.08, P=0.75) to the number of regional lymph nodes involved. Interpretation & conclusions: Based on the results, it is suggested that apoptotic cell count can be a good parameter for showing the possibility of regional lymph node involvement in people with OSCC who do not have clinical symptoms of lymph node involvement.
RESUMO
Introduction and Aim: Cigarette smoking causes severe health problems such as cancer. Micronuclei are structures that present after genomic damages to the cells. The present study is aimed at evaluating the micronucleus assay of buccal mucosa cells in smokers who smoked less or more than 10 years. Materials and Methods: The present study has been a historical cohort study. The smokers were divided into two groups: First group include individuals with a smoking history less than 10 years (14 samples) and second group with the smoking history of more than 10 years (26 samples).The control group consisted of nonsmokers (23 samples). The exfoliated buccal mucosa cells were scrapped using spatula and were spread over the glass slide. Feulgen method was used for micronucleus staining. 500 cells per subjects were counted. The presence of micronucleus in all subjects and the mean percentage of micronucleus in nuclei were determined. Data were subjected to statistical analysis using T-test. Results: The mean number of micronucleus of buccal mucosa cells in nonsmokers, first group (smoking history less than 10 years) and second group (smoking history more than 10 years) was 0.94 ± 0.94, 1.89 ± 0.62 and 2.01 ± 0.93 respectively. The difference was statistically significant (P < 0.002). Considering the number of micronuclei of the buccal mucosa cells, the difference between groups 1 and 2 was not significant (P < 0.6). The mean percentage of micronucleated cells in nonsmokers, group 1 and group 2 was 2.26 ± 2.17%, 13.9 ± 5.90 and14.3 ± 7.97, respectively. The difference was statistically significant (P < 0.001).The difference between the percentage of the cells with micronucleus in smokers with a smoking history of less or more than 10 years was not significant (P < 0.6). Conclusion: The mean number of micronuclei in buccal mucosa cells of the nonsmokers was significantly lower than that of the smokers. However, the mean number of micronucleus of buccal mucosa cells in smokers who smoked more than 10 years was higher than smokers who smoked less than 10 years. Increasing the smoking duration could heighten the frequency of micronucleus; however, the difference was not significant.