Introduction: Tobacco contains several genotoxic agents including N-nitrosamine which has the potential to cause significant nuclear damage. Nuclear blebbing is a form of protrusion on the nuclear membrane and could potentially be caused by tobacco-induced genotoxicity and is closely associated with malignancy. Thus, the present study aimed to assess if tobacco-associated oral potentially malignant disorders including oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) and oral leukoplakia have a higher nuclear blebbing frequency than patients with normal oral mucosa with no history of tobacco use. Methods: The sample consisted of patients with OSF (n = 30) and oral leukoplakia (n = 10) and normal oral mucosa (n = 10). Exfoliated cells collected from the study groups were smeared on a clean microscopic slide and stained by May-Grunwald-Giemsa stain. A baseline frequency of nuclear blebbing was evaluated using a bright-field microscope with a ×100 objective. The number of nuclear blebbing per 1,000 epithelial cells was recorded and expressed in percentage. ANOVA, the Mann-Whitney U test, and Spearman’s correlation were used to analyze the data. Results: The mean rank of distribution of nuclear blebbing showed significant difference between all 3 groups, with the highest frequency noted in leukoplakia, followed by oral submucous and normal oral mucosa. Within OSF, the frequency of nuclear blebbing significantly increased from early stage to advanced stage. In OSF, a statistically significant positive linear correlation was noted between duration (in years), frequency (per day) of tobacco use, clinical grading, and nuclear blebbing. Discussion/Conclusions: The frequency of nuclear blebbing was significantly higher in oral potentially malignant disorders than normal mucosa. Nuclear blebbing also exhibited a strong dose- and time-dependent correlation with tobacco usage and clinical staging in OSF. The nuclear blebbing frequency could be a noninvasive, economic tool to assess malignant risk in tobacco-induced oral potentially malignant disorders.
Acta Cytologica

中文翻译：

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烟草诱发的口腔潜在恶性疾病的核起泡频率：一项初步研究

简介：烟草含有多种基因毒性物质，包括 N-亚硝胺，它有可能造成严重的核损伤。核起泡是核膜上的一种突起形式，可能由烟草引起的基因毒性引起，并与恶性肿瘤密切相关。因此，本研究旨在评估与烟草相关的口腔潜在恶性疾病，包括口腔黏膜下纤维化 (OSF) 和口腔白斑，是否比没有烟草使用史的正常口腔黏膜患者具有更高的核起泡频率。方法：样本由OSF患者（ n =30）和口腔白斑患者（ n =10）和正常口腔黏膜（ n =10）组成。= 10）。从研究组收集的脱落细胞涂在干净的显微镜载玻片上，并用 May-Grunwald-Giemsa 染色剂染色。使用具有×100 物镜的明场显微镜评估核起泡的基线频率。记录每 1,000 个上皮细胞的核起泡数并以百分比表示。方差分析、Mann-Whitney U 检验和 Spearman 相关性用于分析数据。结果：核起泡分布的平均等级在所有3组之间均显示出显着差异，其中以白斑的频率最高，其次是口腔黏膜下层和正常口腔黏膜。在 OSF 中，核起泡的频率从早期到晚期显着增加。在 OSF 中，在持续时间（以年为单位）、烟草使用频率（每天）、临床分级和核起泡之间存在统计学上显着的正线性相关性。讨论/结论：口腔潜在恶性疾病中核起泡的频率显着高于正常粘膜。核起泡还与 OSF 中的烟草使用和临床分期表现出强烈的剂量和时间依赖性相关性。核起泡频率可能是一种非侵入性、经济的工具，用于评估烟草引起的口腔潜在恶性疾病的恶性风险。
细胞学学报