APOLIPOPROTEIN-E POLYMORPHISM IN PATIENTS WITH DIFFERENT NEURODEGENERATIVE DISORDERS

Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) ne urofibrillary tangles and beta-amyloid protein in senile plaques. Ther e are three common alleles of ApoE, designated E epsilon 2, epsilon 3 and epsilon 4. We studied Finnish patients with neurodegenerative diso rders: AD, vascular dementia (VAD), Parkinson's disease (PD), PD + dem entia (PDD), Lewy body variant of AD (LB), frontal dementia (FD), and Down's syndrome (DS), as well as control individuals (C). The ApoE gen otypes and corresponding allele frequencies of 188 patients and 60 con trols were determined by digestion of ApoE polymerase chain reaction p roducts with the restriction enzyme Hha I. The ApoE epsilon 4 allele f requency was 0.17 for C, 0.44 for AD, 0.35 for VAD, 0.10 for PD, 0.38 for PDD, 0.28 for LB, 0.39 for FD, and 0.17 for DS. We found significa nt differences in genotype frequency between AD/C, AD/PD and AD/DS. Ou r results suggest that, beside AD, an increased frequency of epsilon 4 may also be involved in other dementing neurological disorders.