Identification of pterygium-related long non-coding RNAs and expression profiling by microarray analysis

Pterygium is a common degenerative and proliferative disease of the ocular surface. It becomes a significant sight-threatening complication once its ingrowth covers the pupil. The proliferative capacities of pterygial cells give pterygia the appearance of having a mechanism similar to tumorigenesis. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are key regulators of gene expression. The expression levels of certain lncRNAs are associated with a number of diseases, such as different tumors and metabolic disorders, among others. However, the contributions of lncRNAs to pterygium remain largely unexplored. In this study, we constructed pterygium-related lncRNA libraries using microarray analysis to investigate the potential roles of lncRNAs in the development of pterygium. A total of 3,066 upregulated and 1,646 downregulated lncRNAs were identified in pterygium tissues compared with paired adjacent normal conjunctival tissues (log fold change >2.0). Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was performed to validate 3 upregulated and 2 downregulated lncRNAs in 10 patients. Bioinformatics analyses (Gene Ontology analysis and pathway analysis) were used for further research. Pathway analysis indicated that 82 pathways corresponded to the downregulated transcripts and that 15 pathways corresponded to the upregulated transcripts (p-value cut-off, 0.05). Our results reveal differentially expressed lncRNAs in pterygium and suggest that lncRNAs may be the novel molecular targets for the treatment of pterygium.