Apolipoprotein E promoter and alpha 2-macroglobulin polymorphisms are not genetically associated with Chinese late onset Alzheimer's disease

In this study, we investigated two newly reported polymorphisms in associat ion with late onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) in Chinese. They were a -491 A /T polymorphism in the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) promoter region and a five b ase pair deletion at exon 18 of alpha 2-Macroglobin (A2M). There were 196 A D and 180 normal controls (N), which were age- and sex-matched. APOE epsilo n 4 alleles were significantly increased in AD vs. N (chi(2) = 33.3, P < 0. 000001). However, neither the -491 A/T (chi(2) = 1.13, P = 0.29) nor A2M (c hi(2) = 0.18, P = 0.67) polymorphism was associated with AD risk, suggestin g that these polymorphisms do not represent risk factors for AD in the Chin ese population. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.