Real-time Fluorescent Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction Study of Polo-like Kinase-1 in Pterygia

This study was designed to examine the expression of polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) mRNA in 16 pterygia and 13 normal conjunctival tissue specimens using real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was used as the housekeeping gene. The difference in threshold cycle value (Delta C-t) was derived for PLK1 and GAPDH for each sample assayed, and the difference between the paired samples (Delta Delta C-t) was calculated. The mean +/- SD Delta C-t of PLK1 mRNA was 9.56 +/- 1.30 in pterygia compared with 10.71 +/- 1.39 in normal conjunctiva. The expression of PLK1 mRNA in pterygium was 2.08 - 2.36 times that in normal conjunctiva; this difference was statistically significant. Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR analysis appears to be effective and sensitive when determining the level of PLK1 mRNA expression. Using this method, it was demonstrated that PLK1 mRNA is over-expressed in pterygia, indicating a probable role for PLK1 in their development.