GENETIC-VARIABILITY OF APOLIPOPROTEIN-E IN A POLISH POPULATION

Apolipoprotein E (apoE, protein; APOE, gene) is a component of very lo w density lipoprotein and high-density lipoprotein and plays an import ant role in lipoprotein metabolism. There are three common alleles of APOE (2, *3, and *4), which encode the E2, E3, and E4 isoforms of the protein. Distribution of apoE isoforms shows marked variation among v arious ethnic groups. Direct phenotyping of human APOE in plasma was u sed to estimate APOE allele frequencies in 137 unrelated blood donors from 3 regions of Poland. The relative frequencies observed for the AP OE2, APOE*3, and APOE*4 alleles were 0.055, 0.839, and 0.106, respect ively. The data have been compared with data found in other population groups. The frequency of the APOE2 allele in Poles was among the low est in Europe.