Noushin Jalayer Naderi - Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology,Shahed University,Tehran,Iran

Introduction and aim: Study of DNA damage is a noninvasive method forevaluating the risk of exposing to genotoxic factors. Today, cigarette and waterpipesmoking is a global problem. The aim was to evaluate the genotoxic changes incigarette and waterpipe smokers by using the nucleus assay in buccal mucosa cells.Method and Material: The study was a historical cohort. 14 cigarette and 14waterpipe smokers and 15 individual who had never smoked waterpipe and cigaretteincluded in the study. The mean number of micronucleus was determined in allgroups. Feulgen method was used for staining the exfoliated buccal mucosa cells. Thetotal number of nucleus changes per the number of cells with micronuclei wereevaluated.Result: The mean number of micronucleus in cigarette and waterpipe smokers were13.89±5.92 and 12.57±3.63, respectively. The mean number of micronucleus innonsmokers was 7.33±2.05. The difference of nucleus changes between cigarette andwaterpipe smokers was not significantly different (p=0.23). The difference of nucleuschanges in cigarette and waterpipe smokers was significantly higher thannonsmokers (p= 0.0004 and p=0.005, respectively).Conclusion: The DNA damage in buccal mucosa cells of cigarette and waterpipesmokers is significantly higher than nonsmokers. The cigarette and waterpipe havegenotoxic effect on buccal cells.

Micronucleus, Feulgen staining, Cigarette smoking, Waterpipe smoking, Exfoliated buccal cells