EDITORIAL COMMENTARIES
The apolipoprotein-
4 gene: always harmful?
Correspondence to:
T W Teasdale, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen K, Denmark; tom.teasdale@psy.ku.dk
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
It has now long been established that the apolipoprotein epsilon 4 allele (APOE-
4) on chromosome 19 constitutes a genetic risk factor for the development of Alzheimer’s disease.1 Since that discovery, APOE-4 has also often been implicated as being harmful in acquired types of brain injury including traumatic injury2 at least in the short term. Willemse-van Son et al’s evidence (see page 10.1136/jnnp.2007.129460) is reported to suggest, however, that APOE-4 can be associated with better, not worse, outcome following traumatic brain injury.3
What is distinctive in the design of their careful study is, first, that they followed traumatic brain injury patients up to 3 years post injury and, second, that they used a broad measure of outcome functioning. Their striking finding is that a group of patients carrying APOE-4 had, in the long term, a significantly better outcome, as measured by the Glasgow Outcome
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Association between apolipoprotein-
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- A H P Willemse-van Son, G M Ribbers, W C J Hop, C M van Duijn, H J Stam
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2008 79: 426-430.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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