Background: A prospective, non-randomised, transversal and comparative study, carried out in INOVA Vision\r\nInstitute and Autonomous University of Aguascalientes. Pterygium is an important illness that affects 22% people\r\nfrom tropic and equatorial zones. Is an inflammatory process caused by UV rays, and it has a behavior similar to a\r\nneoplasm. For this study was taken into consideration 191 samples from the INOVA Vision Institute, Aguascalientes,\r\nMexico. Include 73 pterygia samples, which were obtained during resection under sterile conditions. 44 normal\r\nconjunctiva samples were obtained from the same patients when harvesting the conjunctival autograft, or from\r\nother patients undergoing extracapsular cataract extraction from the superior bulbar region. Tears from patients\r\nwith pterygium (n = 50) and normal volunteers (n = 24) were obtained using a calibrated glass micro capillary tube.\r\nThe surgical conjunctiva and pterygia samples were subjected to reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction\r\n(RT-PCR), western blot, and immunohistochemistry. Tears were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays.\r\nMethods: This was a prospective, non-randomised study involving 191 biological samples taken from patients with\r\npterygium and normal volunteers, whom were operated under local anaesthesia by either complete resection of\r\nthe lesion with primary closure, or resection with conjunctival autograft. Tissue samples were fixed in 10%\r\nformaldehyde. Sections were routinely stained with hematoxylin and eosin. HCC expression was evaluated by\r\nreverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunohistochemistry, and by western blotting. All tears\r\nsamples were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA).\r\nResults: Expression levels and distribution patterns of HCC in normal conjunctiva and pterygium. Higher levels of\r\nHCC mRNAs and proteins were detected in pterygium compared with a normal conjunctiva. Immunohistochemistry\r\nrevealed that HCC was localized in the apical cells of the epithelium in the normal conjunctiva. In contrast, HCC\r\nwas detected in all extension of epithelial tissue, from apical to basal cells in pterygia. The concentration of HCC\r\nprotein in tears was higher in patients with pterygium versus controls.\r\nConclusion: HCC may play an important role in protecting normal conjunctiva, and regulating inflammatory\r\nconditions of the anterior ocular surface.
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