Comparative analysis of mast cell count in normal oral mucosa and oral pyogenic granuloma

Introduction: Mast cells are large granular cells that arise from a multipotent CD 34+ precursor in the bone marrow normally distributed throughout connective tissues. The most common method to study role of mast cells in any altered condition involves their identification and quantification in that condition and compare the values with that of the normal average count or number of mast cells. The present study was thus, undertaken to identify as well as quantify mast cells in oral pyogenic granuloma and compare it with the average count of mast cells in normal oral mucosa, thus aiming to assess the changes in count of mast cells in oral pyogenic granuloma. Materials and Methods: Ten cases of normal oral mucosa and thirty cases of oral pyogenic granuloma were studied for mast cell number using 1% toluidine blue. Results: An increase in mast cell number was observed in oral pyogenic granuloma. The mast cell count/high power field in pyogenic granuloma and normal oral mucosa was 10.27 and 4.58 respectively. There is a statistically significant increase in the mean of average mast cell count per high power field in oral pyogenic granuloma in comparison to normal oral mucosa. These facts may morphologically indicate a possibility of a role of mast cells in angiogenesis and recruitment of inflammatory cells which are characteristic features of oral pyogenic granuloma