Investıgatıon of the relatıonshıp between TRP channel gene expressıons and pterygıum

Pterygium is a hyaline degenerative disease of conjunctiva that characterized with the invasion of fibrovascular connective tissue in bulbar conjunctiva onto the cornea. The mechanism of pterygium formation is not exactly understood. Transient receptor potential (TRP) channel is a group of ion channel with different characteristics. In the present study, the hypothesis that TRP channel gene expressions may play a role in pterygium formation was tested. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of TRP channels in pterygium. A total of 45 cases, 30 patients with primer pterygium and 15 patients with recurrent pterygium, were included to the study. Healthy conjuctiva tissues of same case are considared as control group. RNA isolations were performed by High Pure fresh tissue mRNA isolation kit, then cDNA was synthesed from total RNA by reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) method. cDNA samples were amplified by real-time PCR and analyzed in BioMark HD. For statistical analyses, GraphPad Instat program was used. Mainly TRPM8, TRPA1 and TRPC2 genes and totally 21 gene expressions in patients with primer pterygium, and TRPM8, TRPC5, TRPM2, TRPM4, TRPM6, TRPV1 and TRPV4 gene expressions in tissue with recurrent pterygium were significantly increased. Our findings are first to indicate a significant relationship between the gene expressions of TRP channels, mainly TRPM8, and pterygium. Our results suggest that TRP channels may have a role in pterygium development.