Tobacco use may not alter histology of buccal mucosa harvested for urethroplasty: Study

The buccal mucosa specimens were evaluated for histologic changes by a single pathologist blinded to the smoking status. Quantitative IHC for Sox2 and p75 were obtained. Due to their clear and direct involvement in oral mucosa's regenerative mechanism, these investigative markers were selected. Comparisons were made between former tobacco users, current users, and control patients by the use of ANOVA and Chi-square analyses.

Key findings were as follows:

· Study cohort was 16 former users, 16 current users, and 32 controls. There was no difference in demographics across the groups.

· No differences were seen in blinded histologic analysis between all groups.

· Greater collagen density was found in the control group compared to current users in pair-wise statistical analysis.

· No differences were observed between former and current users or former users and controls.

· IHC analysis did not show any difference in the amount or localization of epithelial stem cell markers.

The researchers wrote in their conclusion, "our study of buccal mucosa did not find clear or clinically significant IHC or histologic differences between patients with a history of tobacco use and those without a history of use."

Reference:

The study titled, "Evaluation of the Effect of Tobacco Use on Buccal Mucosa Graft Histology," was published in the journal Urology.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2022.03.038