Butyrylcholinesterase K variant and cerebral amyloid angiopathy.
OBJECTIVE
Cholinesterases are found histochemically in the vessels affected with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). A gene for the K variant of butyrylcholinesterase (BCHE-K) may be associated with late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD). In search of genetic risk factors for CAA, we investigated the association of BCHE-K with CAA.


METHODS
The association between the severity of CAA and BCHE-K was investigated in 155 autopsy cases of the elderly, including 48 patients with AD.


RESULTS
There was no significant association of BCHE-K with the severity of CAA in the total, AD, or non-AD cases. Status of the epsilon4 allele of apolipoprotein E gene did not influence the results.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results may suggest that BCHE-K is not a definitive risk factor for CAA in the elderly, although further study with larger samples is necessary to confirm this.
Yamada
M
M
Department of Neurology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan. m-yamada.nuro@med.tmd.ac.jp
Sodeyama
N
N
Itoh
Y
Y
Suematsu
N
N
Otomo
E
E
Matsushita
M
M
Mizusawa
H
H
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000483:Alleles; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D053327:Apolipoprotein E4; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics; D002091:Butyrylcholinesterase / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016657:Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D005787:Gene Frequency; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000378:metabolism; D008875:Middle Aged
D053327:Apolipoprotein E4; D001057:Apolipoproteins E; D007527:Isoenzymes; D002091:Butyrylcholinesterase