TY - JOUR JF - rbmb JO - rbmb.net VL - 8 IS - 4 PY - 2020 Y1 - 2020/1/01 TI - C-MAF Expression in Adult Human Ocular Surface and its Implication in Pterygium Pathogenesis TT - N2 - Background: c-MAF, a transcription factor that belongs to the b-Zip Maf transcription factor family, was found to be critical for lens development in vertebrates. It is a well-known fact that the adult human ocular surface expresses c-MAF, however, its role in the limbus, cornea and conjunctiva remains unknown. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate c-MAF expression within the human ocular surface, and its potential role in pterygium pathogenesis. Methods: We performed immunohistochemical staining to detect c-MAF expression in frozen adult human tissue sections, including the limbus, cornea and conjunctiva, and cultured cells from eye cadavers. We then compared c-MAF expression to the expression of a known protein, P63. Lastly, we performed RT-PCR, and immunohistochemistry for c-MAF expression in healthy adult human conjunctiva and pterygium. Results: We found differential c-MAF expression between adult human limbus, cornea and conjunctiva tissues. Further, we observed that c-MAF is downregulated in the pterygium compared to healthy conjunctiva. Conclusions: Overall, our results suggest that c-MAF may play a context-specific role in maintaining limbal, corneal and conjunctival homeostasis, and may be critical for preventing pterygium development in humans. SP - 419 EP - 428 AU - Reza, Hasan Mahmud AU - Saleh, Razwa AU - Jain, Preeti AU - Rahman, Ghazi Muhammad Sayedur AU - Bepari, Asim Kumar AD - Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, North South University, Dhaka 1229, Bangladesh. KW - Conjunctiva KW - C-MAF Expression KW - Human Ocular Surface KW - Pterygium UR - http://rbmb.net/article-1-417-en.html ER -