Cerebral White Matter Lesions and Apolipoprotein E polymorphism

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Cerebral white matter lesions(WMLs), such as leukoaraiosis, may be related to damage from cerebral ischemia and may also be associated with the degenerative process. The apolipoprotein E (APOE) 4 allele is a risk factor for degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer`s disease, and ischemic brain damage through acceleration of atherosclerosis. No study has been performed regarding WMLs and APOE genotype in Korea. We investigated the association between WMLs and APOE among Koreans. METHODS: Brain MRI was performed in 225 subjects(ages 61 to 85 years) without neuropsychiatric disease randomly selected from the Ansan Health Cohort Study. WMLs observed on 225 MRI scans were rated in terms of severity by 2 raters. All study subjects underwent APOE genotyping. RESULTS: WMLs were observed in 109(48.4%) of subjects. In the subjects with WMLs, the distribution of APOE genotypes was 0.9% for epsilon 2/epsilon 2, 11.0% for epsilon2/epsilon3, 1.8% for epsilon2/epsilon4, 61.5% for epsilon3/epsilon3, 22.9% for epsilon3/epsilon4, and 1.8% for epsilon4/epsilon4, respectively. The distribution of APOE genotypes did not differ between subjects with and without WMLs. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that there is no association between WMLs and APOE genotypes in Koreans.