Abstract:
Recent studies postulated the presence of a probable relationship between pterygium
and neoplasia. This study aimed to investigate the role of two oncogenic viruses, human
papillomavirus (HPV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), in the development of conjunctival
pterygia.
METHODS. Polymerase chain reaction was used to identify the presence of HPV and EBV in
30 primary and 10 recurrent pterygia samples. Twenty conjunctival samples obtained from
patients undergoing cataract surgeries were used as the control group. Patient groups had
similar sex, race, and age distribution to eliminate bias. For exploration of HPV in groups,
two different PCR methods (in-house PCR with two different primer sets and one real-time
PCR method) were studied. The presence of EBV was shown by real-time PCR method.
RESULTS. HPV was identified in none of the pterygia and control group patients. However,
EBV was detected in 3 out of 30 (10%) primary pterygia patients and in none of the recurrent
pterygia and control patients.
CONCLUSIONS. Up to now, HPV has been blamed as the major viral pathogen in the etiopathogenesis
of pterygium. The current results suggest that EBV may also be involved in the
pathogenesis of pterygium, but further larger studies with larger cohorts are required to
confirm this hypothesis.
