Genetic association of an apolipoprotein C-I (APOC1) gene polymorphism with late-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Since a deletion/insertion polymorphism in the promoter region of the apolipoprotein C-I (APOC1) gene has been reported to be associated with late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD), we examined the hypothesis in a Korean population with 120 LOAD cases and 132 age-matched controls. The frequency of APOC1 insertion allele (H2) was significantly increased in LOAD than in controls, giving an odds ratio of 3.3 (95% CI 2.0-5.5, P<0.0001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that the interaction model between APOE epsilon4 and APOC1 H2 yielded larger odds ratio than other models including either APOE epsilon4 or APOC1 H2 alone. In addition, the association between APOC1 H2 and LOAD remained significant after adjustment of the effect of APOE epsilon4 (P=0.036). These results support previous observations that the APOC1 might be an additional susceptibility gene for LOAD.