Effect of smoking on human buccal mucosal cells: A micronucleus assay

Cigarette smoking causes several health problems and deadly diseases like cancer. Cigarette contains many deadly carcinogenic agents which activate in different tissues causing DNA damage. This damage is proportional directly to the frequency and duration of the exposure. Micronuclei are the formed basically due to genetic damage to living cells. Micronucleus (MN) is nuclear body that is formed by chromosome breakage or segregation of chromosome during cell division and can be easily detected in exfoliated buccal cells. This study was carried out to estimation of DNA damage in exfoliated buccal cells in smokers. Therefore the present study was carried out to evaluate the genetic damage using MN assay of exfoliated buccal cells in nonsmokers (comparison group), smokers with respect to duration and frequency of smoking. Two groups of people were taken, twenty five each for smokers, and nonsmokers. Informed consent was taken and relevant information was obtained using a questionnaire. Subjects were instructed to rinse their mouth thoroughly with normal saline two times, before taking the buccal mucosa cells. The buccal mucosa cells that were exfoliated by scrapping the buccal mucosa using new spatula and they were spread over the chilled glass slide after the cells were centrifuged. The slides were stained using Giemsa stain and were mounted for microscopic evaluation. Three hundred cells were counted. Results were noted. Statistical analysis was done using independent sample t-test. The mean and standard deviation in Controls and Smokers were 0.16 ± 0.47 and 1.20 ± 1.22 respectively. Independent sample t-test value showed no difference that was significant in the means between the two groups (p = 0.35). There was no statistical significance observed among Controls and Smokers. This may be due to the small sample size.