Morphometric study of nucleolar organizer regions in human oral normal mucosa, papilloma and squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

A morphometric study of nucleolar organizer regions (NOR) was performed to analyze their distribution, volume, number and shape in the different strata of human normal oral mucosa epithelium and papilloma and in squamous cell carcinoma employing microphotographs of silver-stained paraffin sections. The different NOR-related parameters evidenced significant differences between normal mucosa, papilloma and squamous cell carcinoma. The functional polarity of normal mucosa epithelium and of papilloma is also evidenced in terms of NOR-related parameters. The discriminative value of certain NOR parameters was demonstrated.

Analysis of cell proliferation rate in Oral Leukoplakia and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…It has been suggested that the number of AgNORs in a nucleus may reflect the state of activation and the proliferation activity of the cells (6) and / or degree of malignant transformation of certain tissues (7). The amount of AgNOR is related to the cell cycle, increasingly progressive from G o to S-phase and is proportional to the proliferative activity of neoplastic cells (8). A rapidly dividing tumor population is more likely to have a greater proportion of cells in the early stages of G 1 before individual NORs have associated and are therefore more likely to be observed in greater numbers.…”

Análise quantitativa das AgNORs no carcinoma adenóide cístico intra-oral através da técnica de dupla marcação PCNA/AgNOR

“…De acordo com a literatura, o número de AgNOR está relacionado não apenas com proliferação celular, mas também com variações na atividade metabólica e transcricional (5, 21), com a ploidia celular (15,29) e com a síntese protéica (4). Em nossa opinião, todos estes fatores podem estar relacionados à falta de correlação com o PCNA encontrada em nossos resultados.…”

“…Por outro lado, apesar de a quantificação das AgNORs estar fortemente relacionada à proliferação celular e ao prognóstico em vários tumores (4,5,7,21), os poucos estudos em tumores malignos de glândula salivar, em especial no carcinoma adenóide cístico (CAC), apresentam resultados que deixam ainda dúvidas quanto ao papel das NORs nestas lesões (12,13,36).…”

Proliferative activity in oral salivary gland tumors: the role of PCNA and AgNOR assessed by a double staining technique

“…On the other hand, quantitative analysis of interphase NORs has proved to be valuable in tumor pathology for distinguishing malignant from benign lesions of the same origin (37,38) and has been used to discriminate between benign and malignant salivary gland tumors (10-13). Vuhuhula et al (1) correlated the mean AgNOR count with the biological behavior of ACC and speculated that AgNOR may be more indicative of the biological nature of the condition and hence the degree of malignancy, rather than its proliferative status.…”