Acceptance rate 46%
Time to first decision 20 days*
Time to decision with review 50 days*

*Approximate number of days

**The days mentioned above are averages and do not indicate exact durations. The process may vary for each article.


ACTA Pharmaceutica Sciencia 2010 , Vol 52 , Num 4
SYNERGISTIC EFFECT OF CATHA EDULIS AND SMOKING ON EXFOLIATED BUCCAL CELLS IN SOUTH WEST REGION OF SAUDI ARABIA (ASSER)
KAMEL AHMAD JABER SALEH
King Khalid University, Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, Abha, Zip code 61413, P.O. Box 9004, Saudi Arabia The aim of this study is to use the micronuclei from exfoliated buccal cells to investigate the synergistic effect of Catha edulis (khat) chewing and cigarette smoking, as well as the interaction between two. To investigate the genotoxicity of Catha edulis (khat) and smoking combination on exfoliated buccal epithelial cells, a micronucleus (MN) test was carried out on south-west Saudi Arabia population. Twenty male individual with age 20-25 divided into four groups; first group non smokers and non khat chewers (control), second group was smokers but non khat chewers, third group included khat chewers but non smokers, whenever the last group contains both smokers and khat chewers. Three slides were prepared from every individual scored on 2000 epithelial cells. Results showed the incidence of MN (p>0.05) in the three groups (2, 3 and 4) compared to the control (group1). Moreover, the combination of khat and smoking almost duplicate genotoxicity effect. The obtained results confirmed that khat and smoking combination can induce micronucleus which might result in mouth cancer in advance. Keywords : CLASTOGENIC EFFECTS, CATHA EDULIS, ENVIRONMENTAL GENOTOXICITY, MICRONUCLEUS TEST, EXFOLIATED CELLS

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