Evaluation of Nuclear Morphology in Buccal Epithelial Cells of Smokers: A Case Study at Mulungushi University

This study investigates the degree of karyolysis, pyknosis, karyorrhexis, and karyokinesis of the exposed epithelium against a control population, to evaluate the cytological features of the nucleus, micronuclei frequency and other nuclear anomalies in buccal mucosal cells of tobacco users, and to asses if micronuclei frequency can be used to access the genotoxicity in tobacco users. The study is generally focused on creation of a biomarker that can be used to detect early pre cancers in smokers this research was a case study. The study used qualitative and quantitative method to collect data around thirty two smokers (32) and twenty (20) nonsmokers around Mulungushi University. The approach used ethical clearance by asking the individuals who were willing to provide two buccal swabs willingly which where smeared on the slides and fixed in 95% ethanol before the staining of slides was done. After the samples were collected they were later stained using the papanicolaou stain. Descriptive statistics were employed in analyzing data by using frequency distribution of the responses from the respondents in SPSS and linear graphing using the excel sheet. The results of the study revealed that tobacco has an effect on the buccal epitheliumand therefore this test can be used as a biomarker for detecting mouth epithelial cellsthat are pre-cancerous in smokers. When the binucleation analysis was done it was found that at least two cases where present in smokers and none at all in non-smokers. The number of micronuclei detected in most smokers was way greater than nonsmokers looking at the mean value of both in the results. This study recommends more sensitization on the effects of smoking to people and to create more awareness programs on pre cancers and cancer symptoms. More and further studies should be done on the examination of mouth chromosomes for smokers against a control population to get dipper understanding on the case study