APOLIPOPROTEIN-E GENOTYPES AND ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE IN A COMMUNITY STUDY OF ELDERLY AFRICAN-AMERICANS

As part of a community-based study of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the African-American population age 65 and over, we have determined apolip oprotein E (Apo E) genotypes in 85 subjects (31 AD patients and 54 con trols). The epsilon 4 allele of Apo E was strongly associated with AD in this population sample. The epsilon 4 allele frequency in AD patien ts was 40.3% compared with 23.9% in the control group, and 22.6% of th e AD patients were homozygous for this allele compared with 3.7% of th e control subjects (p = 0.01). This study extends the association of A po E-epsilon 4 and AD to nonwhite populations and provides further evi dence that the observed allelic association is biologically relevant.