A cytopathological study of the effect of smoking on the oral epithelial cells in relation to oral health status by the micronucleus assay

Abstract EN

Background : micronucleus is a cytoplasmic fragment of DNA reported as a biomarker of cancer.

It is a cytoplasmic chromatin mass formed in the basal cells layer of the epithelium.

These fragments can form their own membrane.

The aims of the study was to detect the micronuclei expression in the oral epithelial cells in cytopathological smears of the non-smokers’ and the smokers’ males, correlate the micronuclei expression in the oral epithelial cells with the oral health status variables, and evaluate the efficacy of the micronuclei assay to detect the subjects at high risk of oral mutations.

Materials and methods : this study was conducted on 75 males of (35- 40) years of age divided into 25 heavy smokers, 25 light smokers, and 25 non-smokers.

A cytobrush was used to obtain the smears.

The oral health status was evaluated by using the plaque, gingival, calculus indices in addition to the amalgam and composite restorations.

Results : there was a statistically significant difference in the micronuclei expression among the three groups.

There was a strong correlation between the oral health status variables and the micronuclei expression in the non-smokers group, for the Plaque index with (P-value = 0.0005) and for the calculus index (P-value = 0.04).

The smokers group had a strong correlation with the amalgam restorations with (P-value = 0.0005).

Conclusion : the micronucleus assay detected by Pap stain is a useful biomarker to detect the people at high risk of oral mutations due to the harmful effect of the smoking, the calculus and plaque indices, in addition to the amalgam restorations.