Figure 1.

Decreased autophagic activity and aggravated fibrosis in pterygium tissues and pFB. (A) Representative immunohistochemistry images of normal conjunctival tissues and pterygium tissues from three pterygium patients (P1, P2, and P3). Scale bar, 50 μm. (B) Staining intensity index of LC3 and SQSTM1 proteins for normal conjunctival tissues and pterygium tissues from 10 pterygium patients (mean ± SD; ns, not significant; ****P < 0.0001; paired Student's t-test; magenta arrows, P1; green arrows, P2; cyan arrows, P3). (C) Immunoblots showing protein levels of LC3, SQSTM1, α-SMA, FN, vimentin, and pan-keratin in primary ConFB and primary pFB isolated from tissues of three pterygium patients (left). Quantified protein levels were displayed as bar graphs (right). Data are presented as mean ± SD from three independent experiments (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. ConFB; unpaired Student's t-test). (D) Representative electron microscopic images of ConFB and pFB. Cyan arrows point to autophagosome or autolysosome-like structures. Scale bar, 10 μm and 2 μm (magnified). (E) Viability of ConFB and pFB after cultured for the indicated time, determined by the CCK8 assay. Data are presented as mean ± SD from three independent experiments (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01; unpaired Student's t-test). (F) Invasive ability of ConFB and pFB isolated from tissues of three pterygium patients (P1, P2, and P3), determined by the transwell assay (left). Scale bar, 50 μm. The average numbers of invading cells per visual field were displayed in a bar graph (right). Data are presented as mean ± SD from three independent experiments (***P < 0.001 vs. ConFB; unpaired Student's t-test).