ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is the fifth most common chronic condition and the sixth most frequent cause of death among the elderly. The objective of this research was to develop a new method for diabetes diagnosis by analysis of the glycogen content of the oral epithelial cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten control subjects and ten diabetic patients (study group) were taken, four oral smears for both control and study group from the buccal mucosa were taken and stained with hematoxylin and eosin stain, Papanicolaou (PAP) stain, periodic acid Schiff (PAS) stain and PAS-Diastase (PAS-D) stain. RESULTS: The results showed that in the diabetic group: (i) The epithelial cells stained with PAP stain exhibited figures of binucleation and occasional karyorrhexis, (ii) the epithelial cells treated with PAS-D showed that glycogen containing cells did not take up the stain as compared to the other cells. CONCLUSION: The results associated with clinical and histological observations suggest that diabetes mellitus can produce alterations of oral epithelial cells as well as in their glycogen content.
