human adenoviruses role in ophthalmic pterygium formation

Ophthalmic pterygium is a common benign lesion of unknown origin and the pathogenesis might be vision-threatening. This problem is often associated with exposure to solar light. Recent evidence suggests that potentially oncogenic viruses such as human papillomavirus and Epstein-Barr virus may be involved in the pathogenesis of pterygia. Expression of specific adenovirus genes such as E1A and E1B, which potentially have many functions, may contribute to their oncogenic activity as well as relevance to cellular immortalization.

For the first time, we aimed to investigate involvement of adenoviruses in pterygium formation.

Fifty tissue specimens of pterygium from patients undergoing pterygium surgery (as cases), 50 conjunctival swab samples from the same patients and 10 conjunctival biopsy specimens from individuals without pterygium such as patients undergoing cataract surgery (as controls) were analyzed for evidence of adenovirus infection with polymerase chain reaction using specific primers chosen from the moderately conserved region of the hexon gene. Furthermore, β-globin primers were used to access the quality of extracted DNA. Data was analyzed using SPSS (version 16) software.

Of 50 patients, 20 were men and 30 women with mean age of 61.1 ± 16.9 years ranged between 22 and 85 years. All samples of pterygia had positive results for adenoviruses DNA with polymerase chain reaction, but none of the negative control groups displayed adenoviruses. The pterygium group and the control groups were β-globin positive. Direct sequencing of PCR products confirmed Adenovirus infection.

Adenoviruses might act as a possible cause of pterygium formation and other factors could play a synergistic role in the development. However, further larger studies are required to confirm this hypothesis.