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Morphological Changes Caused by Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetes in the Healthy Gingiva of Rats
1Department of Periodontology, Faculty of Dentistry, Dicle University, Diyarbakir, Turkey.
Background And Objective:
Epidemiologic and clinical studies have indicated that diabetes is a risk factor for periodontal disease progression. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the morphological changes of gingiva in streptozotocin diabetic rats.
Material And Methods:
30 male Wistar rats that weighed 250-300 g were used in this study. The animals were randomly divided into 2 groups, one with streptozotocin-induced diabetes and another one with healthy (non-diabetic) animals. All rats were sacrificed after 21 days, and their maxillary first molars with surrounding tissues were observed morphological analyses.
Results:
In this study, it was observed that the epithelial thickness was greater in the diabetes group, compared to the control group. The statistical comparison of the diabetes and control groups for the thickness of each of the layers of the epithelium demonstrated that the thickness of the keratinized (corneum), granular and basal layers had significantly increased in the diabetic animals. Furthermore, the diabetes group displayed a decrease in the height of the connective tissue papillae, which was found to be statistically insignificant. Another important finding detected in the diabetes group was the congestion of the gingival capillaries, which showed that blood circulation is impaired in diabetes cases.
Conclusion:
On the basis of the results obtained in this study, it was concluded that streptozotocin-induced diabetes may increase predisposition to periodontal disease by causing morphological changes in the periodontal tissues.
