Comparison of Cytogenetic and Static Cytometry Procedures in the Evaluation of Potentially Malignant Oral Lesions

Gross genomic damage or specific chromosomal alterations have been revealed by different laboratory procedures in potentially malignant oral lesions, but two or more procedures have never been applied at the same time to the same cell population. In the present study we considered cell suspensions obtained from 34 oral lesions at risk of malignancy to see whether they might harbour genetic alterations and whether a correlation exists between the results obtained by two different methods of assessing DNA aberrations. Each suspension underwent DNA-content assessment by static cytometry, and cytogenetic G-banding analysis of short-term primary cultures. DNA content was determined in a minimum of 1000 cells on a Fairfield ploidy analyser and results expressed as percent of aneuploid cells in the S-phase; cytogenetic analysis was carried out according to standard procedures on in situ G-banding metaphases, and results expressed as percent of metaphases with chromosomal alterations. The results showed that the percentage of metaphases with chromosomal alterations was significantly correlated with the percentage of aneuploid cells in the S-phase. In conclusion, genetic alterations can be revealed in the same oral specimen either by procedures studying DNA content in fixed cells or by procedures investigating chromosomal alterations in cultured and proliferating cells.