title: [Study of relationship between ApoE epsilon4 allele and hippocampal atrophy in Alzheimer disease].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the relationship between ApoE epsilon4 allele and hippocampal atrophy in patients with AD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using MRI-based volumetry technique and PCR-FRLP, the hippocampal volume and ApoE genotype of 34 AD patients were examined, and the difference in hippocampal volume between the ApoE epsilon4 positive AD group (n=17) and the ApoE epsilon4 negative AD group (n=17) was analyzed. The relationship between the number of ApoE epsilon4 allele and the hippocampal volume was also evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The hippocampal volume of the ApoE epsilon4 positive AD group was significantly smaller than that of the ApoE epsilon4 negative AD group (t = 2.43, P < 0.05), and there was a negative relationship between the number of ApoE epsilon4 allele and the hippocampal volume (r(s) = -0.210, P = 0.0024). These implied: the more the number of ApoE epsilon4 allele a patient had, the smaller the hippocampal volume of the patient would be.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study the relationship between ApoE epsilon4 allele and hippocampal atrophy of AD was noticeable and it might shed light on the possible role of ApoE epsilon4 in the pathogenesis of AD.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Wei-hong
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Kuang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ming-sheng
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Ding-ping
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000483:Alleles; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D053327:Apolipoprotein E4; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics*; D001284:Atrophy; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
chemical_list: D053327:Apolipoprotein E4; D001057:Apolipoproteins E