Background: Smoking is a well-known risk factor for various health problems, including oral cancer. P16 and P53 proteins are involved in cell cycle regulation and proliferation, and their expression levels can provide insights into cellular health. Several studies using different methods, like cytological assessment, DNA damage detection, and histological investigations, have looked at how cells change in the oral mucosa of smokers.
Objective: This study aims to evaluate the cellular changes and
immunohistochemical expression of p53 and p16 in the oral mucosa among Saudi
smokers.
Methods: From 2022 to 2023, 1000 samples from the buccal mucosa
were collected in a cross-sectional study. All the participants included in the
study's participants were Saudi citizens of both genders. Seven hundred cigarette
smokers and 300 non-smokers made up the controls, using two sampling
techniques: initially purposive and then snowball sampling. Both smokers and
nonsmokers appeared to be in fair health, with ages ranging from 18 to 85
years. The materials were subjected to immunohistochemical analysis for P16 and
P53 protein overexpression. The samples were scored based on the percentage of
positively stained cells and staining intensity. The data were analyzed using
SPSS (including the software version), and categorical variables were
identified as frequencies and percentages using the chi-squared test; a value
of P<0.05 was considered significant.
Results: This study is an investigation of the classification of
participants based on gender and age group, as well as the cytopathological
changes observed in cigarette smokers compared to nonsmokers. Cigarette smokers
demonstrated significantly higher rates of cytological inflammation, reverse
cytological infection, atypia, and binucleated/multinucleated cells compared to
non-smokers, with an overall abnormal result rate of 46% versus 18.7%,
respectively (P = 0.024). The study found higher P53 and P16 expression among
smokers (7.14% and 2.14%, respectively) compared to non-smokers (0.1% and
0.33%) (P = 0.038). No significant differences were observed in P53/P16
expression across age groups (P = 0.72) or between male and female participants
(P = 0.25).
Conclusion: These findings highlight the detrimental effects of
smoking on cellular health and reinforce the importance of smoking cessation in
reducing the risk of developing cytological abnormalities and associated
diseases. These results highlight the association of smoking with increased
biomarker expression, emphasizing its relevance in understanding oral health
risks. This is a cross-sectional study which limited to establishing causality
between smoking and the observed cytopathological changes. Future longitudinal
studies are needed to examine whether these cellular changes persist over time
and assess their impact on disease development.
Author
(s) Details
Faris M Elmahdi
Department of Basic Medical Science, Al Rayan National College of Medicine,
Alrayan Colleges, Al-Madina Al-Munawara, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Lama S Alahmadi
College of Medicine, Medical Students, Alrayan Colleges, Al-Madina
Al-Munawara, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Saada S Alharbi
College of Medicine, Medical Students, Alrayan Colleges, Al-Madina
Al-Munawara, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Rahaf Abdulla
College of Medicine, Medical Students, Alrayan Colleges, Al-Madina
Al-Munawara, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Abdulrahman L Alanzi
College of Medicine, Medical Students, Alrayan Colleges, Al-Madina
Al-Munawara, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Sumia S. Kabee
Department of Basic Medical Science, Al Rayan National College of Medicine,
Alrayan Colleges, Al-Madina Al-Munawara, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/acmms/v7/3205
