RESUMEN
AIM: To investigate the association between cycloxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression and VEGF intervention as well as the inhibitory effect of Meloxicam on the cultured human pterygium fibroblasts (HPF).METHODS: Expression of COX-2 was measured by immunohistochemistry in the cultured HPF from twenty excised pterygium cases. Expression of COX-2 in HPF was measured by Western blot following the treatment of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) at the different concentrations. In addition, the effect of Meloxicam on proliferation of HPF was studied by adding the different concentrations into the cultured HPF plates by Mono-nuclear cell direct cytotoxicity (MTT) reduction assay.RESULTS: COX-2 expression was present in the cultured HPF. The level of the expression increased following VEGF treatment. The proliferation of the cultured HPF decreased following addition of the different concentrations of Meloxicam (from 75μ mol/L to 300μ mol/L) and the magnitude of the inhibition was dose-time dependent.CONCLUSION: COX-2 levels in the cultured HPF werepositively associated with VEGF stimulation and Meloxicam was inhibitory to HPF proliferation.