NO ASSOCIATION DETECTED BETWEEN VERY-LOW-DENSITY LIPOPROTEIN RECEPTOR(VLDL-R) AND LATE-ONSET ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE IN HONG-KONG CHINESE

The epsilon 4 allele of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is a risk factor in la te-onset: Alzheimer's disease (AD). As a receptor for ApoE, very-low-d ensity lipoprotein receptor (VLDLR) might be involved in AD pathogenes is. A Japanese study [Okuizimi, K., et al., Nature Genet., 11 (1995) 2 07-209] has shown an increased 5 and decreased 8 CGG-repeat allele fre quency in the 5' untranslated region of VLDLR in Japanese AD versus no rmal controls (N). Subsequent studies in Caucasian Americans failed to duplicate the result. We examined this polymorphism in pathologically -or clinically-diagnosed Chinese late-onset AD. Our data did not show a significant increase in the 5 CGG-repeat in AD, thus suggesting no a ssociation to VLDLR. However, our data did show that the allele freque ncies for each CGG-repeat were similar in both Chinese and Japanese. ( C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.