Distributions of ACE and APOE polymorphisms and their relations with dementia status in Korean centenarians.
BACKGROUND
Genetic polymorphisms of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and apolipoprotein E (APOE) have been reported to be associated with human longevity and dementia in the elderly. However, whether such putative longevity genes exert the same effects on different ethnic groups living in different environments is not well known.


METHODS
We investigated the distributions of the ACE and APOE genotypes and their relations with dementia status in Korean centenarians by cross-sectional study. A total of 103 centenarians (13 men and 90 women, mean age 102.4 +/- 2.6 years) were included in this study. The allele frequencies of the genes were compared with those of two control groups: 7232 apparently healthy adults (4100 men and 3132 women) of mean age 48.5 +/- 9.6 years for the ACE genotyping, and 6435 adults (5008 men and 1427 women) of mean age 50.7 +/- 7.9 years for the APOE genotyping. The dementia status of the centenarians was assessed by clinical psychologist using the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) score.


RESULTS
The frequencies of genotypes and alleles of the ACE and APOE genes of the centenarians were not significantly different from those of the control groups. There was a lack of association between presence of the D allele on the ACE gene and dementia status. However, the frequency of the epsilon4 allele of the APOE gene was significantly higher in centenarians with dementia than in centenarians without definitive dementia (9.1% versus 1.5%, p <.05).


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that neither the ACE nor the APOE gene is significantly associated with longevity in the Korean population, but that the APOE epsilon4 allele is still related with dementia even at age 100 and older.
Choi
Yoon-Ho
YH
Department of Internal Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Kim
Ji-Hae
JH
Kim
Doh Kwan
DK
Kim
Jong-Won
JW
Kim
Duk-Kyung
DK
Lee
Mee Sook
MS
Kim
Cheol Ho
CH
Park
Sang Chul
SC
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D053327:Apolipoprotein E4; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008136:Longevity / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D007703:Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic
D053327:Apolipoprotein E4; D001057:Apolipoproteins E; D007703:Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A