Evaluation of argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) in oral carcinomas in relation to human papillomavirus infection and cytokinetics

1600-0714

Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005

Medicine

The numbers of argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) were quantified in oral carcinomas (n= 39) with or without human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. The AgNOR counts of the HPV-positive samples (7.15±2.13) were not significantly (P= 0.09) higher than those of the HPV-negative ones (6.16±1.89). Furthermore, the lesions infected with multiple HPV types had greater counts than those with HPV type 16/18 infection alone. Significant differences were observed between the mean counts of the poorly (10.50±0.54), moderately (7.31±1.07) and well- (5.12±0.85) differentiated carcinomas. The mean AgNOR numbers in the oral carcinomas at TNM stages III/IV were found to be significantly (P 〈 0.01) higher than the numbers in corresponding stage II lesions. Cytokinetics of the lesions assessed by the bromodeoxyuridine (Brdu) labelling index (LI%) showed a linear correlation (r=0.91: P 〈 0.0001) with their respective mean AgNOR counts.

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