Distribution of apolipoprotein E alleles in a Scottish healthy newborn population

The different alleles of the human apolipoprotein E polymorphism, ApoE epsilon 2, epsilon 3, epsilon 4, have important implications for systemic lipid metabolism, immunological function and for the brain in maintenance and in response to injury. Few studies have focussed on their role in early life. The ApoE alleles and genotypes were ascertained in the cord blood of 371 full-term and normal Scottish newborn infants using PCR methodology. The results were compared to previously published data for Scottish adults in late middle age. There was a marginally significant overrepresentation of epsilon 4 and under-representation of epsilon 3 alleles in healthy infants as compared with adults. Inspection of the individual genotypes confirms the over-representation of ApoE 4/4 and 2/4 with a reduction in ApoE 2/3 and 3/3 when compared with Scottish adults. Although these results may have occurred by chance, the ApoE epsilon 4 allele may confer an increased risk of premature death. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel.