Evaluation of Oral Mucosal Lesions in 598 Referred Iranian Patients

The mucosal membrane of the oral cavity displays at times classical developmental lesions considered to be variations of normal structures rather than having disease characteristics. Of these lesions leukoedema, Fordyce granules, geographic-, fissured- and hairy tongue, median rhomboid glossitis and lingual varices were studied in 598 patients referred to the School of Dentistry, Tehran, Iran. The prevalence was studied in relation to age, gender, occupation, education, smoking habits, general health, addictions and or drug therapies. Oral developmental lesions were seen in 295 patients (49.3%). Only Fordyce granules (27,9%), fissured tongue (12,9%), leukoedema (12,5%) and hairy tongue (8,9%) had enough cases for statistical analysis. Three of these lesions increased with age but not fissured tongue. All were more common in men. After adjusting for age, the parameters education, occupation and complaints upon referral had little influence on the prevalence of the lesions. Fewer Fordyce granules were seen in oral mucosa of smoking men. Leukoedema and hairy tongue were significantly associated with smoking, leukoedema with diabetes mellitus. We conclude that there was a highly significant association between these oral lesions and age, gender and smoking. Few significant associations were found between oral lesions and general diseases

The evaluation of oral precancerous lesions in factory workers of Kerman city in 1998

Abstract: Leukoplakia, erythroplakia and palatal changes due to reversed smoking (R.S) are considered as precancerous lesions. Oral lichen planus has been considered as a precancerous condition. To evaluate precaucerous lesions in factory workers of Kerman city, A cross sectional study was designed in which 1167 workers (1070 Men, 97 Women, Mean age=31/8) were participated. Dental mirrors, explorers and flashlight were used for oral examinations and all the workers were examined by one person. Overall 115 persons 9.9% had red and white lesions and among them 43 cases (3.7%) of precancerous lesion and 6 cases (0.5%) of lichen planus were diagnosed. All biopsy specimen showed nondysplastic leukoplakia. Direct relationship was observed between cigarette smoking habits and loukoplakia (P<0.001). There was also a reverse relationship between educational level and leukoplakia (P<0.001). Leukoplakia and lichen planus were most prevalenced in the age group of 20-40 years (P<0.001). Also most of the lesions were detected in buccal mucosa and vestibule. Erythroplakia and R.S were not observed at all. The study showed a high rate of precancerous lesions among the workers (3.7%). Further epidemiological studies of oral precancerous lesions and the inclusion of Intraoral examinations in health care programs are recommended. Keywords: Oral precancerous lesions, Tobacco products, Leukoplakia, Erythroplaki

Candidate variants in <em>TUB</em> are associated with familial tremor.

Author summary Essential tremor (ET) is the most common adult-onset movement disorder and in most affected families it appears to be inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern. The causes of essential tremor are unknown. Although many genetic studies in affected families and sporadic cases of ET have shown that genes may play a role, it has proven quite challenging to identify the specific genetic variants involved. Here, we use state-of-the-art technologies to identify the role of genetic variants on ET through exome sequencing of a large affected ET family and subsequent validation in a large population of cases and controls. We show that rare nonsynonymous variants of theTUBgene are significantly enriched in ET cases versus healthy controls. Further studies of biological pathways regulated by TUB in the mouse brain reveal key pathways related to ET. Our work expands our knowledge of the genetic basis of ET.Essential tremor (ET) is the most common adult-onset movement disorder. In the present study, we performed whole exome sequencing of a large ET-affected family (10 affected and 6 un-affected family members) and identified aTUBp.V431I variant (rs75594955) segregating in a manner consistent with autosomal-dominant inheritance. Subsequent targeted re-sequencing ofTUBin 820 unrelated individuals with sporadic ET and 630 controls revealed significant enrichment of rare nonsynonymousTUBvariants (e.g. rs75594955: p.V431I, rs1241709665: p.Ile20Phe, rs55648406: p.Arg49Gln) in the ET cohort (SKAT-O test p-value = 6.20e-08).TUBencodes a transcription factor predominantly expressed in neuronal cells and has been previously implicated in obesity. ChIP-seq analyses of the TUB transcription factor across different regions of the mouse brain revealed that TUB regulates the pathways responsible for neurotransmitter production as well thyroid hormone signaling. Together, these results support the association of rare variants inTUBwith ET