Genetic and Neuropsychological Factor Analysis on the Cognitive Function of the Elderly Population: APOE Genotype and Age Effect Analysis / 대한임상병리학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: APOE (Apolipoprotein E) has been known as a risk factor for Alzheimer disease. Studies have demonstrated that different APOE E4 phenotypes appear to modulate the effects of cognitive aging in healthy elderly Caucasian populations. APOE E4 allele has different odds ratio risk for Alzheimer disease according to the age of the subject. Previously, we reported the APOE genotype effect on the cognitive function of the elderly populations without dementia. At this time we studied on the APOE E4 genotype combined with age. METHODS: We examined the different effects of APOE E4 allele on the neuropsychological func-tions of 201 community-dwelling Korean elderly individuals without dementia according age. We used the multivariate general linear model analyses. We made a model with the education year, APOE E4 presence, age (same or more than 70-year-old vs. less than 70-year-old) and APOE E4 presence combined with the age. RESULTS: APOE E4 allele did not show the significant effect on the neuropsychological test when ages are not considered. When the APOE E4 allele and age is combined, the recency, delayed recall and cued recall of the Elderly Verbal Learning Test (EVLT) shows a significant result from the multivariate general linear model anlayses. CONCLUSIONS: APOE E4 allele has a different effect on the cognitive function of the elderly popula-tion according to the age.