PURPOSE. Pterygium is an invasive and highly vascularized growth, thought to arise from activated and proliferating limbal epithelial stem cells. Epidemiologic studies have found the increase of active angiogenic and epithelial growth factors in pterygia, and implicated that these molecules could be involved directly or indirectly in the pathogenesis of pterygia as causative factors. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of polymorphisms of transforming growth factor (TGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) with pterygium. METHODS. A total of 133 pterygium patients and 105 volunteers without pterygium were enrolled in this study. Polymerase chain reaction based restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis was used to resolve the TGF-Beta 1-509 and VEGF-460 genotypes. RESULTS. There was no significant difference in the allele frequency or genotype of TGF-Beta 1-509 or VEGF-460 between total pterygium and the control group. No interaction between TGF-Beta 1-509 and VEGF-460 was found either. CONCLUSIONS. These results indicate that TGF-Beta 1-509 and VEGF-460 polymorphisms were not highly associated with the pathology of pterygium. However, it may still be worthwhile to continue to search for angiogenic gene polymorphisms in order to predict the development of pterygium.
