P53 expression in altered limbal basal cells of pingueculae, pterygia, and limbal tumors

Abstract

We previously discovered that the pathogenesis of pterygia was due to a vimentin-expressing, altered limbal epithelial basal cell, the pterygium cell. Since UV radiation epidemiologically correlates as the etiologic agent for pterygia and limbal tumors and is mutagenic for the p53 gene, our goal was to search for p53 gene mutations immunohistochemically in the altered limbal basal cells of these growths and of pingueculae from which they seem to originate.