Apolipoprotein E as vascular risk factor in neurodegenerative dementia

Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is the major lipid-carrier protein in the brain, and several studies provided evidence that ApoE epsilon4 allele can be considered a genetic risk factor for vascular diseases. Findings indicate that Alzheimer disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) may have common risk factors and/or pathogenesis, but their interrelationships still need to be clearly defined. Since ApoE4 imparts risk for both hyperlipidemia and AD, it seemed worthwhile to investigate the possible role of ApoE in the pathogenesis of AD and VaD. To this task, we examined in healthy volunteers, and AD and VaD patients: i) the frequency of ApoE isoforms; and ii) the influence of ApoE genotype on serum lipid levels. Our findings suggest that epsilon4 allele is an important risk factor for the development not only of the Alzheimer type, but also of the vascular type of dementia. In contrast, epsilon2 allele could have a protective role in AD dementia. These results confirm the hypothesis that serum ApoE concentration is dependent on ApoE genotype, but do not support the view that it has to be considered a relevant biochemical marker for AD and VaD.