Résumé
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the distribution of apolipoprotein E (apo E) polymorphism in Chinese Dehong Dai and Kunming Han ethnic groups.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>After the process of extracting genomic DNA from 171 Chinese Dehong Dai and 71 Chinese Kunming Han subjects, the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique was used to amplify the fourth exon of apoE, which contains site 112 and 158 in amino acid sequence, and the apoE polymorphism was detected.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The genotyping frequencies of apolipoproteinE epsilon 2/2, epsilon 2/3, epsilon 2/4, epsilon3/3, epsilon3/4, epsilon4/4 in Dehong Dai were 0.006, 0.111, 0.006, 0.789, 0.088 and 0.000 respectively, while the genotyping frequencies of apoE epsilon2/2, epsilon2/3, epsilon2/4, epsilon3/3, epsilon3/4, epsilon4/4 in Kunming Han were 0.000, 0.169, 0.014, 0.718, 0.099, 0.000, respectively (P>0.05). The allelic frequencies of apoE epsilon2, epsilon3 and4 in Dehong Dai were 0.064, 0.889, 0.047 respectively, while the allelic frequencies of apoE epsilon2, epsilon3 and epsilon4 in Kunming Han were 0.092, 0.852, 0.056, respectively (P>0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The results revealed that either the frequency of genotype or that of allele of apoE gene polymorphism showed statistical difference between the ethnic populations. Compared with the data from other nationalities in China, the frequency of epsilon2 allele in Dehong Dai was significantly lower than that in Zhuang nationality (P<0.01); the frequency of epsilon3 allele in Dehong Dai was significantly higher than that in Chaoxian, Hui, Mongolian,Zhuang nationalities (P<0.05) and Uygur nationality (P<0.01); the frequency of epsilon4 allele in Dehong Dai was significantly lower than that in Olunchun nationality (P<0.05) and Uygur, Owenk nationalities (P<0.01). By comparison with the data from the populations of other races, the distribution of apoE gene polymorphism in Dehong Dai population is similar to that in Japanese population (P>0.05), but different from those in Singapore,European and American populations.</p>