Alpha-2-macroglobulin intronic polymorphism is not associated with autopsy-confirmed late-onset Alzheimer's disease

Alpha-2-macroglobulin (A2M) intronic polymorphism has recently been reporte d to be associated with late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD). To corrobora te this association, we analysed the A2M and apolipoprotein E (APOE) polymo rphisms in autopsy cases of the MRC Alzheimer's Disease Brain Bank, Institu te of Psychiatry, London. The frequencies of the insertion and deletion all eles in AD were 0.81 and 0.19, respectively, and these were not significant ly different from control frequencies. After pooling the AD cases in epsilo n 4 positive and negative subgroups, there was again no significant differe nce between the A2M allele frequency in the two subgroups. In our present s tudy, we were unable to corroborate the association between A2M intronic po lymorphism and LOAD in autopsy cases. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd . All rights reserved.