Symptomatic changes of oral mucosa during normal hormonal turnover in healthy young menstruating women.

INTRODUCTION: Changes in hormonal levels, such as those that occur during puberty, pregnancy, menstruation and menopause, have varying effects on oral cavity. Many researchers have proposed a direct link between changing hormonal status and oral health among females. OBJECTIVES: To study the various symptoms and clinical manifestations of oral cavity during normal course of menstrual cycle in healthy women. METHOD: Our study comprised of forty healthy young women volunteers with normal menstrual cycle of 28 to 30 days. A proper menstrual history was recorded from the study subjects. The entire cycle was divided into four phases comprising of bleeding, proliferative, ovulation and secretory. All the study subjects had a menstrual cycle of 28 to 30 days. Thorough recording of oral discomforts during various phases of the cycle was done during the study period. RESULTS: 30% of study subjects complained of aphthous ulcers, 5% had herpes labialis, 25% of them complained of depression, 8% showed gingival bleeding. CONCLUSION: Complaints, like oral ulcerations, mood variations, recurrent herpetic lesions, gingival bleeding in females during normal menstrual period, are attributed to the role of female sex hormones. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Lesions, like oral ulcers, recurrent herpetic lesions and increased gingival bleeding, seen in females during normal menstrual periods, could be related to hormonal turnover and therefore treated accordingly.

Expression of syndecan-1 in different grades of oral squamous cell carcinoma: An immunohistochemical study.

Background: Syndecans are a family of transmembrane proteins, belonging to heparin sulphate proteoglycan family and are localized entirely to the epithelial cells with the stratified squamous epithelia. They are involved in cell-cell adhesion and interaction with the extracellular matrix and play a critical role in cell growth, differentiation, cell morphology, and migration. The down regulation of syndecan-1 indicates loss of cellular adhesion and possibility of invasion. The present study is aimed to evaluate the difference in immunohistochemical expression of syndecan-1 in different grades of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients and control group. Methods: The present study consists of 42 cases of paraffin-embedded tissue sections of OSCC; 14 well differentiated, 14 moderately differentiated, and 14 poorly differentiated. As a control, 10 paraffin-embedded tissue sections of unaffected oral mucosa were used. The sections were stained for immunohistochemical expression of syndecan -1. The intensity of staining was scored. The immunohistochemistry scores for each sample were obtained by Tissue Quant software. Results: Statistical analysis revealed that there was a significant decrease in intensity of staining between normal and different grades of OSCC. Conclusion: This study shows that as cellular differentiation was lost, syndecan-1 expression was less. This provides an insight and understanding of the pathophysiology of the invasive process of OSCC and helps in establishing the prognostic link.