Authors : Maryam Seyedmajidi, Kosar Dadgar, Shahrooz Momeni and Mahmood Hajiahmadi
Abstract: Oral cytology is a method that has been proposed for the early diagnosis of oral mucosal changes. Silver nitrate staining can be a valuable way to discover early cellular changes. Because an obvious cause and effect relationship exists between smoking and cancer, this study was conducted to evaluate the AgNORs in smears collected from normal oral mucosa of smokers and non-smokers. Cytological smears were collected from three anatomic sites of normal oral mucosa; floor of the mouth, border of the tongue and buccal mucosa. The smears were taken from two groups, smokers and non-smokers for the purpose of correlating smoking habits to possible cellular alterations. The AgNOR count in samples that were obtained from normal oral mucosa in smokers was higher when compared to the count in non-smokers (p = 0.001). There was a significant difference between smears that were obtained from the floor of the mouth in smokers when compared to that in non-smokers (p = 0.004). The mean number of nuclei with >5 AgNORs was higher in smokers and this difference in the floor of mouth and buccal mucosa was statistically significant (p<0.0001, p = 0.019, respectively). This study suggests that cigarette smoking is related to increased proliferative activity in oral mucosal cells.
Maryam Seyedmajidi, Kosar Dadgar, Shahrooz Momeni and Mahmood Hajiahmadi, 2010. Nucleolar Organizer Region-Associated Proteins in Cytological Smears of Normal Oral Mucosa: The Effects of Smoking. Research Journal of Biological Sciences, 5: 750-755.