Oral Epithelium as a Surrogate Tissue for Assessing Smoking-Induced Molecular Alterations in the Lungs
Doctors may be able to determine the extent of a smoker’s lung damage by looking in his or her mouth, according to new research from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Because smoking exposes both the lungs and oral cavity to tobacco carcinogens, the scientists hypothesized that cells lining the mouth undergo molecular alterations similar to those in other parts of the airway and therefore could be used as surrogate tissue to assess molecular damage to the lungs, says senior study author Li Mao, M.D., a professor of thoracic/head and neck medical oncology and of systems biology at M. D. Anderson.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 1:24 pm and is filed under Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.