Estimation of Salivary and Tissue Nitric Oxide Levels in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Biochemical Study

Abstract

Objective: The study was conducted to estimate the salivary and tissue nitric oxide (NO) levels in healthy individuals and subjectswith squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity.Methods: In this study, the salivary and tissue NO levels were estimated in 20 healthy subjects and 20 patients with oral squamouscell carcinoma (OSCC).Results: The mean salivary NO levels in Group I (control group) was 78.59 µM/L (standard deviation=5.91608), while the meansalivary NO levels of Group II (study group) were 115.6765 µM/L (standard deviation=0.9431). The mean tissue NO levels in GroupI (control group) was 87.6315 µM/L (standard deviation=1.91631), while the mean tissue NO of Group II (study group) was 172.376µM/L (standard deviation=0.84774.Conclusion: Our results illustrated that the increase in the NO levels in the saliva is positively correlated with the NO level in tissues;hence, salivary NO level can be used as a potential diagnostic biomarker in OSCC.