Assessing the Effects of Administering Calcium Oxide Nanoparticles on Oral Mucosa and Tongue of Male Wister Rats

The present study was conducted to evaluate the impact of calcium oxide-nanoparticles (CaO-NPs) administration at different concentrations on the epithelial thickness, papilla length and number of blood vessels of male Wister rats’ buccal mucosa, and the epithelial thickness,  filiform length and number of blood vessels of the rats’ tongue. Twelve rats were used and randomly allocated into four groups: control group (untreated) and the three experimental groups were orally treated with CaO-NPs at different doses 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg of the body weight over two months. On the 61^st day, all the animals were sacrificed, and 1 cm of the buccal mucosa and the body of the tongue were carefully removed for histological analysis. Histological tissues were studied under a light microscope to investigate the impact of CaO-NPs administration on the oral tissues. An image processing software (Image J) was used to measure the epithelial thickness, papilla length and number of blood vessels of the rats’ buccal mucosa, and the epithelial thickness, filiform length and number of blood vessels of the rats’ tongue. The results showed that the CaO nanoparticles administration caused epithelial atrophy and decreased vascularization of buccal and tongue mucosa with all tested doses of CaO-NPs and the 100 mg/kg concentration showed the most significant effect.