Epithelial dysplasia and silver binding nucleolar organizer region proteins (agnors ) in oral submucous fibrosis.

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Oral submucous fibrosis is an insidious chronic disease of multifactorial etiology. The chewing of areca nut is thought to be an important etiological factor. It was suggested that substantial amount of copper is released from areca nut products which induces lysyl oxidase activity thus up regulating collagen synthesis by fibroblasts facilitating its cross linkage and thereby inhibiting collagen degradation. Nucleolar organizer regions proteins (NORs) are associated with proliferative activity and prognostic marker in several precancerous conditions and cancers. Different grades of OSMF were studied to find out its correlation with AgNORs counts and grade of dysplasia in OSMF. Material and Methods : Biopsy was taken from the buccal mucosa of OSMF patients. 3 - 4µ sections were cut from paraffin embedded sections. H & E stain, AgNORs stain & AgNORs counting was done. Results : The data analysis revealed that Mean AgNORs (p value – 0.0001, 0.039, 0.046, 0.0001 in grade I, grade II, grade III, grade IV respectively) counts were increased as grade advances. Conclusion :. There is a positive correlation of AgNORs counts with clinical and histological grading, and AgNORs could truly serve as prognostic marker as a measure of dysplasia in OSMF.