Morphology and morphometry of the human sublingual glands in mouth floor enlargements of edentulous patients

Asymptomatic mouth floor enlargements may be observed in edentulous patients. These masses, which protrude from the mouth floor, may complicate the fitting of dentures and require surgery. Whether this "entity" may be considered an anatomical variation of the mouth floor or represent specific alterations in the sublingual gland is not known. Objective: The aim of this work is to investigate the morphological and morphometric aspects of the sublingual glands of edentulous patients with mouth floor enlargements and compare the glands of these patients with the sublingual glands of human cadavers. Material and Methods: Microscopic evaluation was performed on human sublingual glands from edentulous patients with mouth floor enlargements (n=20) and edentulous cadavers (n=20). The patients and cadavers were of similar ages. The data were compared using Mann-Whitney U, Fisher's exact and Student's t tests (p<0.05). Results: Acinar atrophy, duct-like structures, mononuclear infiltrates, replacement of parenchyma with fibrous/adipose tissue, mucous extravasation and oncocytosis were similar between the groups (p>0.05). Only the variables "autolysis" and "congested blood vessels" presented statistical difference between groups (p=0.014; p=0.043). The morphometric study revealed that the volume densities of acini, ducts, stroma and adipose tissue were similar between the groups (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: The microscopic characteristics of the sublingual glands in mouth floor enlargements in edentulous patients correspond to characteristics associated with the normal aging process. The glands are not pathological and represent an age-related alteration that occurs with or without the presence of the mouth floor enlargements. .

Stromal changes in apparently normal mucosa of smokers and pan chewers: a multi-parametric approach

Aim: To compare and contrast the various changes in the connective tissue among patients with the habits of smoking, pan chewing and controls by using fluorescence spectroscopy, histopathology and transmission electron microscopy. Method: Thirty subjects were categorized into three groups: pan chewers, smokers and controls without any oral lesions. Fluorescence spectroscopy was carried out using FLUOROMAX-2. Excitation spectroscopy was performed at 280 and 320nm respectively and Emission spectroscopy was performed at 340 and 390nm excitation. Subsequently, histopathological evaluation and transmission electron microscopy was done for biopsies taken from test groups and controls. Results: The mean, standard deviation and test of significance of mean values between different groups for intensity-380nm, intensity–420nm and intensity – 460nm at 320 nm excitations, showed that the Mean values in group I and group II were significantly higher than the mean value in group III with a p-value of less than 0.001. Considering the histopathological parameters, the pattern of the sub-epithelial connective tissue, the presence of chronic inflammatory cells and lysis of connective tissue was significant. The ultrastructural analysis revealed the presence of epithelioid, spindle or elongated and stellate shaped fibroblasts in the connective tissue. Conclusion: In this pilot study, we could find variations in emission characteristics of various amino acids which correlated with histopathology and electron microscopy. Our study suggests that there are connective tissue changes in oral mucosa among smokers and pan chewers, though it is apparently normal in clinical presentation. These initial connective tissue changes could determine the progression of altered mucosa to a pre-cancer or cancer, which is further related to other complex interactions. Elaborate studies are required to evaluate the significance of our hypothesis.

Estudo imuno-histoquímico da desmoplasia em neoplasias de glândula salivar / Immunohistochemical study of desmoplasia in salivary gland neoplasms

Desmoplasia é a deposição proeminente de colágeno de permeio às células neoplásicas, tendo-se o miofibroblasto como a célula responsável por esse processo. Sua presença tem sido associada a um prognóstico mais favorável em algumas neoplasias e, diante disso, propusemo-nos a estudar sua presença em neoplasias de glândula salivar. A fim de verificar a presença do miofibroblasto no estroma tumoral dessas neoplasias, utilizamos a técnica imuno-histoquímica através do método EnVision-peroxidase com o anticorpo anti-actina-músculo-liso (AML) nos casos selecionados de: adenoma pleomórfico - AP (6), carcinoma mucoepidermóide - CME (21) carcinoma adenóide cístico - CAC (7), carcinoma epitelial-mioepitelial - CEM (2), adenocarcinoma polimorfo de baixo grau de malignidade - APBGM (11) e carcinoma de células acinares - CCA (2). Apenas os casos de CME, APBGM e CCA exibiram positividade para o anticorpo, confirmando a presença do miofibroblasto, em graus variáveis de acordo com cada variante tumoral. Apenas nos casos de CMEs pôde ser verificada a relação entre a presença da desmoplasia e a menor agressividade do tumor. Nos demais casos (AP, CAC, CEM e CCA), essa relação não existiu, o que nos levou à conclusão de que, nos tumores de glândula salivar, o comportamento e as reações diferem entre as entidades, ficando claro que, nesses tumores, deve-se individualizar o estudo do estroma

Modificaçöes na populaçäo de células e no volume absoluto de estroma de glândulas submandibulares de rato durante o desenvolvimento / Changes in the cell population and in the absolute volume of the stroma of rat submandibular glands during postnatal development

As mudanças que ocorrem no parênquima de um orgäo epitelial durante o seu desenvolvimento ontogenético säo controladas pela sua interaçäo com seu estroma de origem mesenquimal. O objetivo do atual trabalho foi o de avaliar uma possível relaçäo na evoluçäo do volume absoluto e no número de células do estroma e do parênquima da glândula submandibular do rato durante o desenvolvimento pós-natal. No período de 2 a 70 dias de idade, a massa glandular aumentou 1822 por cento, às custas de um marcante crescimento de 3593 por cento e de 1211 por cento, respectivamente, no volume absoluto do parênquima e do estroma. Por outro lado, o número de células nos mesmos compartimentos aumentou, respectivamente, 1033 por cento e 1203 por cento. Esses resultados indicaram que o aumento no volume celular individual das células epiteliais também tem papel importante no crescimento do volume do parênquima, e que no estroma, ocorreu proporcionalidade entre o crescimento do número de células e de matriz extracelular. A relaçäo volume do estroma/volume do parênquima diminuiu nos períodos, respectivamente, de 2 a 28 e 35 a 70 dias, e manteve-se estável no período de 28 a 35 dias devido exclusivamente ao aumento no número de células do estroma e exibiu estabilidade nos demais períodos. Convém salientar, que é nesse período de 28 a 35 dias, que ocorre o grande processo de transformaçäo de células dos ductos estriados em células secretoras serosas dos ductos granulosos, o que caracteriza o início da fase ductal do desenvolviemnto pós-natal da glândula submandibular do rato. As mudanças detectadas no estroma nesse período podem estar relacionados a este fato