Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Jun 1:15:1092-7.

HPV infection and p53 inactivation in pterygium

Yi-Yu Tsai  1 , Chi-Chung Chang, Chun-Chi Chiang, Kun-Tu Yeh, Pei-Liang Chen, Chi-Huang Chang, Ming-Chih Chou, Huei Lee, Ya-Wen Cheng
Affiliations

HPV infection and p53 inactivation in pterygium

Yi-Yu Tsai et al. Mol Vis. .

Abstract

Purpose: Our recent report indicated that tumor suppressor gene (p53) mutations and protein aberrant expression were detected in pterygium. Inactivation of p53 by Human papillomavirus (HPV) 16/18 E6 plays a crucial role in cervical tumorigenesis. In this study, we further speculate that p53 inactivation may be linked with HPV infection in pterygium pathogenesis. To investigate the involvement of HPV 16/18 E6 in p53 inactivation in pterygium, the association between HPV 16 or HPV 18 infection, the HPV E6 oncoprotein, and p53 protein expression was analyzed in this study.

Methods: HPV 16/18 infection was detected by nested-polymerase chain reaction (nested-PCR), the p53 mutation was detected by direct sequencing, and the p53 and the HPV 16/18 E6 proteins were studied using immunohistochemistry on 129 pterygial specimens and 20 normal conjunctivas.

Results: The HPV 16/18 was detected in 24% of the pterygium tissues (31 of 129) but not in the normal conjunctiva, and the HPV16/18 E6 oncoprotein was detected in 48.3% of HPV 16/18 DNA-positive pterygium tissues (15 of 31). In addition, p53 protein negative expression in pterygium was correlated with HPV16/18 E6 oncoprotein expression but not with a p53 mutation.

Conclusions: HPV 16/18 E6 contributes to HPV-mediated pterygium pathogenesis as it is partly involved in p53 inactivation and is expressed in HPV DNA-positive pterygium.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Representative positive and negative immunostaining for HPV 16/18 E6 protein in paraffin sections of pterygium. Representative positive HPV 16/18 E6 immunostaining is shown in (A). The brown color pointed out by the red arrow indicates a HPV 16/18 positive signal. Negative HPV 16/18 E6 immunostaining is shown in (B).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Representative positive and negative immunostainings for p53 protein in paraffin sections of pterygium. Representative positive p53 immunostaining is shown in (A), negative p53 immunostaining is shown in (B). The brown color pointed out by red arrow indicates p53 positive signal.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Tan DT, Lim AS, Goh HS, Smith DR. Abnormal expression of the p53 tumor suppressor gene in the conjunctiva of patients with pterygium. Am J Ophthalmol. 1997;123:404–5. - PubMed
    1. Dushku N, Reid TW. P53 expression in altered limbal basal cells of pingula, pterygia, and limbal tumors. Curr Eye Res. 1997;16:1179–92. - PubMed
    1. Onur C, Orhan D, Orhan M. Dizbay Sak S, Tulunay O, Irkec M. Expression of p53 protein in pterygia. Eur J Ophthalmol. 1998;8:157–61. - PubMed
    1. Chowers I, Pe’er J, Zamir E, Livni N, Ilsar M, Frucht-Pery J. Proliferative activity and p53 expression in primary and recurrent pterygia. Ophthalmology. 2001;108:985–8. - PubMed
    1. Weinstein O, Rosenthal G, Zirkin H, Monos T, Lifshitz T, Argov S. Overexpression of p53 tumor suppressor gene in pterygia. Eye. 2002;16:619–21. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances