DOI: 10.36347/sjds.2017.v04i08.001

Pages: 337-340

Biomonitoring of neoplasia has been one of the most challenging and upcoming issues in modern medicine. The relevance of biomarker in oral cancer has been extensively studied. Micronuclei are cytoplasmic chromatin masses with the appearance of small nucleus that arise from lagging chromosome at anaphase or from acentric chromosome fragments. Micronuclei can be a potential tool to reflect the cytogenotoxic damage in oral cancer and pre-malignant conditions such as oral submucous fibrosis. The present study aims at comparing the cytogenotoxicity in patients with oral cancer, oral sub mucous fibrosis and normal inhabitant by analyzing the frequency of micronucleated cells in the exfoliated buccal epithelial cells. The present study comprises of three groups: Group A: 20 Normal healthy individuals; Group B: 20 patients with Oral Submucous Fibrosis; Group C: 20 patients with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Smears made from exfoliated buccal epithelial cells and stained with Acridine-Orange stain and frequency of micronuclei were analyzed per 1000 cells. The statistical analysis of the resulting data was done using One-way Anova test and Kruskal-Wallis Analysis of variance. The mean micronuclei frequency in Group A was 0.70±0.733; Group B was 12.20±5.67 and in Group C was 26.30±6.07 cells per 1000 cells. The mean difference between the three groups was statistically significant (p <0.05). The oral mucosal micronuclei frequency may be a marker of epithelial carcinogenic progression.