Avaliação da proliferação celular da mucosa bucal em indivíduos expostos ao crack

Abstract

AIM: To compare the rate of cell proliferation in two sites of the oral mucosa (tongue and floor) of patients exposed to crack cocaine and patients not exposed to drug. METHODS: The sample consisted of 71 individuals divided into control group (GC): 25 subjects who did not smoke and did not consume illicit drug, with 21 men and 4 women; Group Crack (GCR): 18 subjects who consumed daily or crack almost every day, 14 men and 4 women; Cocaine Group (GCO): 12 subjects who sniffed cocaine daily or almost daily, 7 men and 5 women; Group Crack-Cocaine (GCRO): 16 subjects who drank daily or almost daily crack cocaine, 12 men and 4 women. An interview was conducted to collect data identification, demographic, socio-economic status, oral health status and level of exposure to the drug. There were cytological smears edge of tongue and floor of the mouth, which were submitted to silver impregnation technique for quantifying the average and the percentage of AgNORs/nucleus. Measurements were compared by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Kruskal-Wallis, followed, respectively, by testing multiple comparisons Tukey and Mann Whitney test at a significance level p>0,05. RESULTS: Increased proliferation rate of the cells exfoliated from de edge of tongue pAgNOR>2 groups GCR and GCRO. At the site, floor of the mouth, there was no significant difference between the GC and the other groups. CONCLUSION: The edge of the tongue is a site more susceptible to drug exposure, but depending on these individuals being exposed to different types of external agents, can not be said that crack, in isolation, is responsible for the increased rate of cell proliferation the GCR. Among the difficulties in studying the effect of crack mouth are, the variety of the chemical composition of the drug (components and quantity), the combination of other drugs and the individual variability in the number of AgNORs / nucleus.