Alzheimers disease is not associated with the hypertension genetic risk factors PLA(2) or G protein beta 3, either independently or interactively with apolipoprotein E

Growing evidence suggests that hypertension and Alzheimers disease (AD) may share a common etiology, To evaluate the contribution to AD of genetic fac tors associated with hypertension, we genotyped clinic and community-based AD cases and controls for polymorphisms within the pancreatic PLA(2) gene a nd the G protein beta 3 subunit gene, both of which are located on chromoso me 12, Our results do not support an independent association between either of these genes and AD. We further assessed the possibility that either of these genes may interact with the apolipoprotein E gene, a known risk facto r for hypertension and AD, on predicting AD. We were unable to find statist ical interaction between either the pancreatic PLA(2) or G beta 3 genes and the apolipoprotein E gene on risk for AD. These results do not support a s hared genetic etiology between hypertension and AD. Possibly, a clinical as sociation between these diseases could be due to pathophysiologic interacti ons. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.