title: Evaluation of cell proliferation in malignant and potentially malignant oral lesions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the cell proliferation rate by the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and argyrophilic nucleolar organizing region (AgNOR) counts and to assess its usefulness as a marker for malignant potential in oral epithelial lesions.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study group included 30 cases of leukoplakia, 15 nondysplastic (NDL), 15 dysplastic (DL), 15 cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and 5 cases of normal oral mucosa. Formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissues were subjected to immunohistochemical staining for PCNA and AgNOR technique. The PCNA labeling index (LI) and the AgNOR dots were evaluated for the entire sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  ANOVA, Tukey honestly significant difference, Pearson's correlation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, the AgNOR count of OSCC was lower than the DL lesions moreover the AgNOR counts were found to be higher in normal mucosa as compared to the DL and the NDL epithelium. The study results also showed that the mean AgNOR count failed to distinguish between DL and NDL lesions. Overall we observed increased PCNA expression from normal epithelium to NDL to DL lesion.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on the findings of the present study on oral epithelial precancerous and cancerous lesions we conclude that mean AgNOR count alone cannot be a valuable parameter to distinguish between the normal, NDL, DL epithelium and OSCC but, on the other hand, we found out that PCNA can be a useful biomarker for delineating normal epithelium from DL epithelium and OSCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Babu Banarasi Das College of Dental Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Mani
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Madan
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, KGMC, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Shaleen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chandra
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Chandra Dental College and Hospital, Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Vineet
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Raj
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontology, Saraswati Dental College and Hospital, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Rohit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Madan
keywords: Argyrophilic nucleolar organizing region; epithelial dysplasia; oral squamous cell carcinoma; proliferating cell nuclear antigen