title: Lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels are associated with Parkinson's disease.
abstract: The apolipoprotein E (APOE) epsilon2 allele has been associated with both Parkinson's disease (PD) and lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). We tested the hypothesis that lower LDL-C may be associated with PD. This case-control study used fasting lipid profiles obtained from 124 PD cases and 112 controls. The PD cases were recruited from consecutive cases presenting at our tertiary Movement Disorder Clinic, and the controls were recruited from the spouse populations of the same clinic. Multivariate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated from unconditional logistic regressions, adjusting for age, gender, smoking status, and use of cholesterol-lowering agents. Lower LDL-C concentrations were associated with a higher occurrence of PD. Compared with participants with the highest LDL-C (> or =138 mg/dL), the OR was 2.2 (95% CI = 0.9-5.1) for participants with LDL-C of 115 to 137, 3.5 (95% CI = 1.6-8.1) for LDL-C of 93 to 114, and 2.6 (95% CI = 1.1-5.9) for LDL-C of < or = 92. Interestingly, use of either cholesterol-lowering drugs, or statins alone, was related to lower PD occurrence. Thus, our data provide preliminary evidence that low LDL-C may be associated with higher occurrence of PD, and/or that statin use may lower PD occurrence, either of which finding warrants further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA. xuemei@med.unc.edu
authors.forename: Xuemei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Honglei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: William C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Richard B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Mailman
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Woodard
authors.forename: Peter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: Richard W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Murrow
authors.forename: Yi-Zhe
authors.initials: YZ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Poole
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D008078:Cholesterol, LDL / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D008078:Cholesterol, LDL