Apolipoprotein E Ploymorphism in Patients with Alzheimer Disease in Iranian Population

Alzheimer's dementia (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease which in recognized as the most ommon form of dementia in the age of 65 years old and above. Diagnosis of this disease is based upon evaluation of congnitive skills, elimination of other dementia associated diseases and cranial CT examination. However, the definitive diagnosis is proved only by neurohistological findings. Although the etiology of the disease is unknown and it's effective treatment is not available, research in the pathomechanism of the disease shows a connection between increased frequency ofapolipoprotein E4 allele and later onset of AD. The objective of this study was to characterize apoipoprotein E polymorphism's in late onset ofAD patients. In his regard, 100 AD patients and 100 individuals (as normal controls) were examined using the PCR method. he result showed that the E4 allele was significantly more frequent in both early and late onset goups (42%) ompared to the controls (11%). This data indicates that the Apo E4 could be regarded as a risk factor for AD.