title: Apolipoprotein E polymorphism and Alzheimer's disease in eastern Finland.
abstract: Apolipoprotein E is a polymorphic protein defined by three alleles, epsilon 2, epsilon 3 and epsilon 4. An increased frequency of the epsilon 4 allele is associated with late-onset familial and sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD). We studied 202 Finnish AD patients and 55 age- and sex-matched controls. AD patients were divided into four subgroups; sporadic early-onset, sporadic late-onset, familial early-onset and familial late-onset disease. We found no significant differences in the epsilon 4 allele frequency between the subgroups. However, all the subgroups differed in the frequency of epsilon 4 allele detection from the controls (P < 0.0001). In the late-onset patients, the age at onset decreased from 76 to 69 as the number of epsilon 4 alleles increased from 0 to 2.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Kuopio University Hospital, University of Kuopio, Finland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lehtovirta
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Helisalmi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mannermaa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Soininen
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koivisto
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ryynänen
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Riekkinen
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000483:Alleles; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000145:classification*; D002888:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 19; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D001057:Apolipoproteins E