The VDR protein expressionvalues for the pterygium and control tissues were 0.47 ± 0.58 ver sus 0.26± 0.47 (p=0.04) for the inflammatory cells of the subepithelial stromaltissue, 0.64 ± 0.54 versus 0.32 ± 0.56 (p=0.002) for the vascularendothelium, and 1.92 ± 1.0 versus 1.18 ± 0.99 (p=0.0001) for theintravascular inflammatory cells, respectively (Table 4). The gene discussed is VDR; the disease is pterygium.