This study indicates that pterygium and pinguecula have an altered metabolism of cholesterol-namely increased LDL-R and HMG-CoA-R mRNAs-as is characteristic of tumorlike tissues, and that the high expression of LDL receptors renders them amenable to be treated by photodynamic therapy with intravenously injected verteporfin.
The increased level of 8-OHdG in pterygium is not due to decreased expression of hOGG1, while increased levels of 8-OHdG induced the expression of hOGG1.
In analysis of specimens from pterygium patients as well as normal conjunctivas, VEGF121 and VEGF165 were identified as the only VEGF splice forms expressed.
The results reveal similar behaviors in limbal and pterygium epithelial cells in terms of VEGF and VEGFR expression, with the presumption that pterygia arise from limbal epithelial cells and that human conjunctivas are not a suitable control for the analysis of pterygia.
Genomic, cDNA and embryonic expression analysis of zebrafish IRF6, the gene mutated in the human oral clefting disorders Van der Woude and popliteal pterygium syndromes.
We examined the pathways responsible for enhanced expression of MMP-1 in pterygium epithelial cells after UVB exposure and/or treatment with chemical inhibitors of mitogen-activated protein kinases or epidermal growth factor receptor.
We examined the pathways responsible for enhanced expression of MMP-1 in pterygium epithelial cells after UVB exposure and/or treatment with chemical inhibitors of mitogen-activated protein kinases or epidermal growth factor receptor.
The interferon regulatory factor 6 gene (IRF6) has been identified as the major Van der Woude (VWS) syndrome and popliteal pterygium (PPS) syndrome gene with mutations in the majority of the kindreds.
After p53 protein was found to be abnormally expressed in the epithelium, researchers suggested that a pterygium may be a tumor, but additional evidence is required to support this hypothesis.
Therefore, BPDE-like DNA adduct, p53 protein expression and p53 gene mutation were examined in this study to provide more molecular evidence to understand the cause of p53 gene mutation in pterygium.
Because pterygium is an UV-related uncontrolled cell proliferation, it is logical to assume polymorphisms of Ku70 is associated with genetic predisposition to pterygium.
There were no significant differences between pterygium and control groups in age, sex, and distribution of genotype and allelic frequency of VEGF-460 polymorphism.
Several researchers believe that pterygium is UV-related and that abnormal expression of p53 protein and infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) are risk factors for pterygium, but their experiments have been inconclusive.
S100A8 and S100A9 were localized in the superficial layer of both pterygium and normal conjunctiva epithelium, with higher levels in pterygium than uninvolved conjunctiva.