Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Oct-Dec;35(4):233-236.
doi: 10.4103/JOC.JOC_141_17.

Micronuclei as a Predictor for Oral Carcinogenesis

Kamini Kiran  1 , Padmanidhi Agarwal  2 , Shailesh Kumar  2 , Kanav Jain  2
Affiliations

Micronuclei as a Predictor for Oral Carcinogenesis

Kamini Kiran et al. J Cytol. 2018 Oct-Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of the study was to provide a quantitative evaluation of oral mucosal micronuclei (MN) frequency as a biomarker for oral cancer susceptibility in carcinogenesis progression.

Methods: 60 patients were included in the study. 30 patients with biopsy proven epithelial dysplasia (ED, 15) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC, 15) comprised the study group and 30 patients with normal buccal mucosa, reporting for minor surgical procedures formed the controls. After informed consent, exfoliated cells were collected from the affected site using a premoistened wooden spatula and spread on precleaned slides, fixed, stained using modified rapid Papanicolaou method and subjected to microscopic examination. MN were identified and scored according to Tolbert et al. criteria.

Results: Maximum patients with ED and OSCC were males and in age groups of 20-40 and 40-60 years, respectively. The most common site was the buccal mucosa. The maximum of MN count/500 cells in OSCC group was 11.93, 4.0 in ED and 1.46 in controls, with the mean and mean MN index ± SD distribution in the three groups showing high statistical significance (P = 0.000). A significant difference between mild and moderate ED and between moderately and well-differentiated OSCC was also observed.

Conclusion: MN assays can help in early detection of premalignant and malignant lesions, thereby improving survival and reducing morbidity associated with treatment. MN index is thus a feasible and economical method for screening high-risk populations of oral cancer, to be able to timely identify genomic damage in order to prevent the cancer epidemic.

Keywords: Biomarkers; DNA damage; carcinogenesis; micronuclei; mouth neoplasms; precancerous conditions; squamous cell carcinoma.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

References

    1. Halder A, Chakaraborty T, Mandal K, Gure PK, Das S, Raychowhary R, et al. Comparative Study of Exfoliative Oral Mucosa Cell Micronuclei Frequency In Normal, Precancerous And Malignant Epithelium. Int J Hum Gene. 2004;4:257–60.
    1. Partheepa NS, Kaur S, Reddy KS, Vivekanandam S, Ramachandra RK. Micronucleus Index: An Early Diagnosis in Oral Carcinoma. J Anat Soc. 2008;57:8–13.
    1. Rajendran R. Oral leukoplakia (leukokeratosis): Complication of facts and figures. J Oral Maxillofac Pathol. 2004;8:58–68.
    1. Kashyap B, Reddy PS. Micronuclei assay of exfoliated oral buccal cells: Means to assess the nuclear abnormalities in different diseases. J Can Res Ther. 2012;8:184–94. - PubMed
    1. Palve DH, Tupkari JV. Clinico-pathological correlation of micronuclei in oral squamous cell carcinoma by exfoliative cytology. J Oral Maxillofac Pathol. 2008;12:2–7.