1995 Volume 44 Issue 4 Pages 652-657
A case of gingival hyperplasia induced by nicardipine (NIGH) was presented. The patient was a seventy-four-year-old Japanese woman. The swelling of the gingiva was reduced after changing the drug, tooth brushing instruction and scaling without gingivectomy.
The hyperplastic gingiva, as compared with phenytoin-induced gingival hyperplasia (PIGH) and normal gingiva (NG), was investigated histologically and immunohistochemically. By means of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) immunohistochemistry, synthetic phase cells were identified in the basal and suprabasal layers in the epithelium. However, BrdU labeling indices showed no remarkable difference between NG and hyperplastic gingiva. Therefore, it was suggested that proliferation of the connective tissue mainly results in gingival hyperplasia.
Several myofibroblasts, detected by a-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) immunohistochemistry, were observed in the connective tissue of NIGH and one of PIGH. Number of the a-SMA positive vessels in the lamina propria of NIGH was higher than that in PIGH and NG. Diameter of arteries in the lamina propria of NIGH was bigger than that of the other cases. These findings suggested possible relation of the myofibroblasts to manifestation of NIGH and hypothesis whose effect of the calcium-channel blocker on the vessels in marginal gingiva might result in NIGH.
