APOLIPOPROTEIN-E ALLELIC FREQUENCIES IN PATIENTS WITH LOBAR ATROPHY

Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotype was determined by polymerase chain re action amplification and restriction digestion of DNA extracted from b rain tissues of 26 patients with clinically diagnosed and pathological ly verified lobar atrophy (LA) and from blood of a further 22 patients with clinical LA. Brain tissue from 50 patients with pathologically c onfirmed Alzheimer's disease (AD) was also examined, As has been previ ously reported, the ApoE E4 allele frequency was significantly increas ed in AD. However, no change in the frequency of ApoE alleles was foun d in two of the clinical and pathological forms of LA (dementia of fro ntal type and dementia of frontal type with motor neurone disease) alt hough the ApoE E4 allele frequency was elevated in cases of non-fluent progressive aphasia in accordance with the presence of coincidental A lzheimer-type pathological changes.