title: Relationship of apolipoprotein E and age at onset to Parkinson disease neuropathology.
abstract: Previous studies investigating the association between apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotypes and Parkinson disease (PD) have yielded conflicting results, and only a few have addressed APOE as a possible determinant of PD pathology. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between APOE and PD as well as APOE and PD pathology. We studied 108 pathologically verified patients with PD and 108 controls pair-matched for age and gender. Allele frequencies of APOE differed between patients with PD and controls (p = 0.02). The frequency of epsilon4 allele increased (p = 0.01), whereas that of epsilon3 allele decreased with advancing PD pathology (p = 0.002). Only age of PD onset was an independent predictor for the rate of progression of PD pathology in which late-onset patients appeared to reach end point PD pathology more rapidly than early-onset patients (p = 0.001). In conclusion, our findings suggest that APOE may express its effect on the risk of PD by modifying the occurrence of PD pathology, but age of PD onset seems to be the principal determinant of the progression rate of PD pathology.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Clinical Neuroanatomy, J. W. Goethe University, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, D-60590 Frankfurt/Main, Germany. ghebremedhin@em.uni-frankfurt.de
authors.forename: Estifanos
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ghebremedhin
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Del Tredici
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vuksic
authors.forename: Udo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Rüb
authors.forename: Dietmar R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Thal
authors.forename: Guido J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Burbach
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rosenberger
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bickeböller
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Deller
authors.forename: Rob A I
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: de Vos
authors.forename: Ernst N H
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Jansen Steur
authors.forename: Heiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Braak
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D001057:Apolipoproteins E