title: Variations in centromeric heterochromatin among patients with pre-malignant and malignant oral diseases.
abstract: Polymorphism of heterochromatic regions of chromosomes 1, 9 and 16 was studied in 60 oral cancer patients, in 40 patients with oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) and in 60 normal healthy subjects. The size heteromorphism was significantly greater (p less than 0.001) in chromosome I of the patients. Localization variants were also significantly more frequent among the patients (p less than 0.05 for OSMF and less than 0.001 for oral cancer patients). The C-band heteromorphism patterns remained comparable in OSMF and in oral cancer patients, with chromosome I being the most frequently involved. On correlating the tobacco/areca-nut chewing habit with the presence of C-band heteromorphism, we observed that C-band heteromorphism was present in 89% of the habit-free oral cancer patients and 80% of the OSMF patients with relatively shorter exposure to this habit, i.e. less than 5 years. This signifies that genetic factors are important in the causation of oral precancerous and cancerous conditions and that polymorphism of the heterochromatic regions does appear to play a role in these conditions.
authors.affiliation: Cell Biology Division, Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute, Ahmedabad, India.
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Dave
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Trivedi
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Adhvaryu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001114:Areca; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D002503:Centromere / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D002871:Chromosome Banding; D002878:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 1; D002885:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 16; D002899:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 9; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006570:Heterochromatin / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D012016:Reference Values; D012907:Smoking
chemical_list: D006570:Heterochromatin