Testes de micronúcleo como biomarcador para detecção dos danos genotóxicos causados pelo tabagismo.

Abstract

Smoking is a chronic disease considered worldwide as the leading cause of preventable death. Tobacco practice exposes the human body to thousands of harmful compounds responsible for the emergence of several chronic and neoplastic diseases. Cancer is a multifactorial disease that is always associated with genetic disease, starting with DNA damage. The monitoring of cellular injuries has been useful as a way to identify and prevent the development of carcinogenic processes. Thus, the objective of this work was to use the micronucleus technique and evaluate its potential as a biomarker of genotoxicity caused by cigarettes and other associated factors. The methodology was carried out through the analysis of smears of cells from the oral mucosa stained with methylene blue and evaluation of the presence of micronuclei, together with the application of questionnaires. Our data demonstrate that there was an increase in the number of micronuclei in the cells of smokers (p<0.0001), followed by passive smokers (p<0.001) and ex-smokers (p<0.01), respectively, when compared to non-smoking people. There was no relationship between the increase in micronuclei and intrinsic factors, such as time of cigarette use, age, sex or consumption of alcoholic beverages. After smoking cessation, DNA damage was present to a lesser extent than in smokers, but continued to be increased when compared to the non-smoking group. Thus, we can confirm the efficiency of the MN test as a bioindicator of lesions in oral cells, reaffirm the significant relationship between smoking and genotoxicity, in addition to being related to the emergence of several chronic diseases, the toxicity caused by cigarette smoke in passive smokers was also proven from the results.