The APOC3 SstI polymorphism is weakly associated with sporadic Alzheimer's disease in a Chinese population

In order to clarify the relationship of apolipoprotein CIII (APOC3) polymorphism and sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD) in Chinese, 165 sporadic AD patients and 174 age-matched elderly individuals were genotyped for the APOC3 SstI and apolipoprotein E (APOE) HhaI polymorphisms. As the result, the APOC3 3017G allele was found to be associated with AD in APOE ɛ4 allele noncarriers (χ2 = 4.433, P = 0.035), and the risk estimate of allele C versus G resulted in an OR of 1.56 (95% CI: 1.03-2.37), although in total no significant differences of allelic or genotypic frequencies between patients and controls were found. Assessment of interaction between APOE ɛ4 and APOC3 3017G status presented an adjusted odds ratio of 0.62 (95% CI: 0.37-1.03) with a borderline significant P-value (P = 0.066). Therefore, we conclude that the rare APOC3 G allele may offer some protection against the development of sporadic AD in APOE ɛ4 noncarriers in Chinese.