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. 2012 Sep;16(3):354-8.
doi: 10.4103/0973-029X.102483.

Comparative morphometric study of AgNORs in variants of ameloblastoma

Vijay Kumar Jain  1 , K Uma, N Soundarya, R Sangeetha, T Smitha
Affiliations

Comparative morphometric study of AgNORs in variants of ameloblastoma

Vijay Kumar Jain et al. J Oral Maxillofac Pathol. 2012 Sep.

Abstract

Aims: To compare the area and number of AgNORs (silver stained nucleolar organizer regions) by morphometry between follicular and plexiform variants of ameloblastoma in order to analyze their cell proliferation rates.

Materials and methods: This retrospective study was carried out on 30 cases each of follicular and plexiform ameloblastoma. The sections were obtained and stained with silver staining technique to identify the nucleolar organizer regions. AgNORs were quantified using two parameters; manual tag for the number of AgNORs and area measurement using the image analyzer software, Image-Pro-Express.

Results: Morphometric area measurements of AgNOR were significantly higher for Plexiform ameloblastoma (0.831μm(2)) than follicular ameloblastoma (0.528μm(2)). Enumeration of the number of AgNORs showed a significantly higher number of AgNOR for follicular ameloblastoma (1.71) than plexiform ameloblastoma (1.43). Among the groups studied, follicular ameloblastoma was more aggressive than plexiform ameloblastoma, as it showed smaller AgNOR area and higher AgNOR number.

Conclusion: The combination of counting the number and measuring the area of AgNOR dots showed a significant overall difference between AgNOR profiles of follicular and plexiform variants of ameloblastoma.

Keywords: Agnor; Follicular ameloblastoma; Morphometry; Plexiform ameloblastoma.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
AgNOR stained follicular ameloblastoma (100×)
Figure 2
Figure 2
AgNOR stained plexiform ameloblastoma (100×)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Morphometric analysis of area measurement of AgNORs using the image analyzer software image-proexpress
Figure 4
Figure 4
Counting of AgNORs using manual tag for the number of AgNORs using the image analyzer software image-proexpress
Graph 1
Graph 1
Bar graph showing the comparison of mean number of AgNORs in follicular and plexiform ameloblastoma
Graph 2
Graph 2
Bar graph showing the comparison of mean area of AgNORs in follicular and plexiform ameloblastoma
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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