APOLIPOPROTEIN-E IN PROGRESSIVE SUPRANUCLEAR PALSY IN JAPAN

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a rare neurodegenerative disea se which shows several psychiatric and neurologic symptoms: pseudobulb ar palsy, supranuclear ocular palsy, extrapyramidal rigidity, gait ata xia, and dementia.(1) Almost all cases seem to be sporadic; therefore, the elucidation of risk factors is important to clarify the pathologi cal mechanism. Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) is now well established as a risk factor of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here we report the ApoE allel e frequency in PSP, which shares pathological findings such as neurofi brillary tangle (NFT) with AD. NFT is an important sign for the derang ement of normal cytoskeletons in degenerating neurons. Although there was no significant increase in epsilon 4 allele frequency in the prese nt series of PSP cases compared with that in the Japanese controls, th ere was a significant increase in the epsilon 2 allele frequency in PS P compared to controls.