Estrogen receptor gene polymorphisms in patients with Alzheimer's disease,vascular dementia and alcohol-associated dementia

The association between the estrogen receptor (ER-alpha) gene and dementia was examined in 223 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), 66 with vascula r dementia (VD), 17 with alcohol-associated dementia (ALD) and 134 healthy elderly control subjects. The Pvull and Xbal restriction fragment length po lymorphisms of the ER-alpha gene were represented as Pp (Pvull) and Xx (Xba l), with capital letters signifying the absence of restriction sites and sm all letters the presence of restriction sites. We found that the frequency of the ER-alpha gene P allele and X allele in the late-onset AD (LOAD) grou p (P allele was 0.51, X allele was 0.30) was significantly higher than that in controls (P 0.38, p < 0.01; X 0.20, p < 0.01), and that the frequency o f the ER-alpha gene P allele and PP genotype was significantly different be tween apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 carriers and noncarriers in LOAD. These fi ndings suggest that the genotype of the ER-alpha gene may be specific in LO AD, and that the ER-alpha gene was an additional risk for LOAD. Copyright ( C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.