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Apolipoprotein E phenotypes in healthy normal controls and demented subjects with Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia in Mie Prefecture of Japan
Author(s) -
Nakayama Shigeho,
Kuzuhara Shigeki
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
psychiatry and clinical neurosciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1440-1819
pISSN - 1323-1316
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-1819.1999.00619.x
Subject(s) - apolipoprotein e , medicine , dementia , pathogenesis , vascular dementia , alzheimer's disease , allele , endocrinology , phenotype , apolipoprotein b , disease , biology , genetics , cholesterol , gene
In order to clarify the association between apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) and the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), we analyzed the distribution of the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) phenotypes and the frequency of the apo E alleles ɛ2, ɛ3, and ɛ4 in Japanese healthy controls ( n = 1090, an average age of 51.2 ± 12.6 years) and demented patients ( n = 103, mean age of 73.6 ± 9.2 years). Demented subjects were divided into three subgroups: early‐onset AD group (EOAD; n = 25, mean age 63.0 ± 6.2 years), late‐onset AD group (LOAD; n = 33, mean age 79.3 ± 5.1 years), and vascular dementia group (VD; n = 45, mean age 75.3 ± 8.0 years). The apolipoprotein E phenotype was determined by isoelectric focusing and immunoblotting. There were no significant differences in the distribution of the apo E phenotypes by gender or age, and the estimated frequencies of ɛ2, ɛ3 and ɛ4 were 0.05, 0.86 and 0.09, respectively, in the normal controls. There was a significant difference in the distribution of the apo E phenotypes between LOAD and elderly controls aged more than 65 years ( P < 0.0001). The distribution of the apo E phenotypes in EOAD was the same as that in LOAD. The frequency of the ɛ4 allele was significantly higher in LOAD (0.35, P < 0.0001) and EOAD (0.28, P < 0.0001) than that in the control subjects (0.07), but not in VD (0.12, P = 0.1630). The present findings suggest that ApoE4 is related with both EOAD and LOAD, but not with VD, and support the hypothesis that it is a genetic risk factor of AD.