Pterygium is a common benign lesion of limbus but the pathogenesis are not completely understood. Pterygia have a chronic inflammatory cellular infiltrate and a rich vasculature. Mast cells are a heterogeneous group of multifunctional tissue-resident cells. It has been suggested that mast cells and their products may be responsible for the formation of new blood vessels. We investigated the number and phenotype of mast cells and neovascularization in pterygia specimens and compared with those in normal conjunctival specimens

Pterygia tissues were obtained during excisional surgery from 32 eyes of 32 consecutive patients. Seventeen of all cases were recurrent pterygia. Superior bulbar conjunctival tissue from the same eye was also sampled as control tissues. The tissue sections were stained with routine hematoxyline-eosin and toluidine blue stain for mast cells. For immunohistochemical studies anti-factor VIII-related antigen, monoclonal anti human mast cell tryptase and chymase were used as an endothelial and mast cell marker.

The mean number of mast cells in pterygia was significantly higher than that in the normal conjunctival tissue and microvessel counts was significantly higher than the counts of the controls in both primary and recurrent pterygia. There was no correlation between microvessel numbers and mast cell numbers. There was no phenotypic difference between the mast cells in the ptergyia and those in the normal conjunctival tissues.

This study confirms that mast cells are prominent in pterygia and our results suggest that mast cells and angiogenesis are independent factors in the genesis and progress of ptergyium.