DISTRIBUTION OF APOLIPOPROTEIN-E GENE POLYMORPHISMS IN JAPANESE PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE AND IN JAPANESE CENTENARIANS

We have demonstrated an association between apolipoprotein E (apoE) ge ne polymorphisms and Alzheimer's disease (AD) in 163 Japanese patients by means of PCR. We found a significant increase in risk of nonfamili al AD for apoE allele epsilon 4 in these individuals; this trend decre ases with the increase in onset age. In centenarians, the distribution of apoE gene alleles is similar to that in the general population, Th e protective effect of allele epsilon 2 against the development of AD is not statistically significant in our analysis. This indicates that apoE polymorphism is associated with AD regardless of race and that th e age of onset is related to the apoE gene in the development of AD.