UNDEREXPRESSION OF THE APOLIPOPROTEIN E2 AND E4 ALLELES IN THE GREEK CYPRIOT POPULATION OF CYPRUS

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) plays an important role in the multifactorial etiology of both cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's disease. Polym erase chain reaction (PCR) was used to investigate the APOE gene polym orphism in 335 unrelated Greek Cypriots living on the island of Cyprus . For the most common APOE genotypes, the Greek Cypriots followed the general Caucasian European pattern of having higher genotypic frequenc ies of E3/3, followed by E3/4, and then E2/3. Among the European popul ations compared, Greek Cypriots exhibited the lowest relative frequenc y of the E3/4 genotype (12.83%). Also, the relative frequencies of the E2 and E4 alleles in Greek Cypriots were among the lowest around the world (5.4% and 7.0%, respectively). This was also demonstrated by usi ng the complete and the average clustering methods of analysis where t he APOE allele relative frequencies in Greek Cypriots were compared to 46 other populations. The Greek Cypriot population in these analyses clustered with populations mainly from south Europe and Japan which ha ve low E2 and E4 allele frequencies. The Greek Cypriot population will be studied further for elucidating the effect(s) and the role of APOE in cardiovascular disease and the APOE4 allele as a possible metaboli c factor affecting the rate of expression of both Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.