[Ultrastructure of the buccal mucosa in the non-smoking cirrhotic patient]

Ultrastructural analysis of biopsies of the buccal mucosa was carried out in 12 non-smoking patients and 10 smokers with a confirmed clinical diagnosis of alcoholic cirrhosis. Certain signs of epithelial dysplasia, including increase in nuclear cytoplasmic ratio, proeminence of the nucleolus, fragmentation and proliferations of the basal layer accompanied or not by epithelial projections into the chorion, were seen in non-smoking cirrhotics, as in the smokers. These findings emphasise the predominant role of alcohol alone in carcinogenesis.