The alpha-2 macroglobulin gene is not associated with Alzheimer's disease in a case-control sample

Genetic association has recently been reported between alleles in the alpha -2-macroglobulin (A2M) gene and the occurrence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in fami I ia I and sporadic samples. We have investigated the A2M intronic deletion polymorphism in a case-control study of 295 unrelated clinic and c ommunity-based AD cases, and compared these to a sample of 113 unrelated co ntrol individuals recruited as part of an epidemiological study. Our result s show no association between A2M and AD in either case sample. Furthermore , A2M is not predictive of AD in an interactive fashion when considering AP OE, race or gender, in a subset of our larger sample we have also investiga ted the A2M Val1000Ile polymorphism, and again find no evidence for associa tion. We conclude that there is no genetic association between A2M and AD i n our case-control sample. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All right s reserved.