Expression of mTOR in Primary Pterygium and its Correlation with α-Smooth Muscle Actin.
PURPOSE
Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a serine/threonine protein kinase that has been shown to affect many cellular functions, such as cell growth, proliferation, and metabolism. However, there has been minimal focus on the expression of mTOR in pterygium. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of mTOR and the correlation between the levels of mTOR and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA, a marker of transdifferentiation) in pterygium.


METHODS
Primary pterygium samples from 28 patients and normal conjunctival samples from 16 patients were surgically removed and analyzed. The expression levels of mTOR and α-SMA in the excised specimens were assessed using immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. Furthermore, correlations between the mTOR and α-SMA expression levels were studied.


RESULTS
The expression of mTOR and α-SMA was significantly higher in the pterygium tissues than in normal conjunctiva tissues. A significant positive correlation was detected between the number of mTOR-immunopositive fibroblasts and the number of α-SMA-immunopositive fibroblasts (ρ = 0.463, p = 0.0078). Additionally, mTOR expression was significantly correlated with α-SMA expression (ρ = 0.269, p = 0.031) in pterygium.


CONCLUSIONS
There was an increased expression of mTOR in pterygium samples compared to that in normal conjunctival tissues, with a positive correlation with α-SMA expression. These findings might be involved in the pathogenesis of pterygium.
['Zhao|Xin-Rong|XR|', 'Zhang|Ming-Chang|MC|', 'Xie|Hua-Tao|HT|', 'Ji|Nan|N|', 'Ma|Xiao-Qiong|XQ|']
D000199:Actins D000368:Aged D015415:Biomarkers D015153:Blotting, Western D005260:Female D005347:Fibroblasts D006801:Humans D007150:Immunohistochemistry D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D011625:Pterygium D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases
mTOR Pterygium α-Smooth muscle actin Pterygium fibroblasts