Apolipoprotein E Gene Polymorphim Are Not Aociated With Diabetic Retinopathy: The Atherocleroi Rik in Communitie tudy Original Reearch Article

Purpoe Polymorphim of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene ha been aociated with dylipidemia and cardiovacular dieae. Thi tudy examine the aociation of APOE polymorphim and diabetic retinopathy. Deign Population-baed cro-ectional tudy. Method We tudied 1,398 people aged 49 to 73 year with diabete elected from four United tate communitie. We performed retinal photography on one randomly elected eye and graded for the preence and everity of diabetic retinopathy uing a modification of the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy tudy cale. We performed genotyping of common polymorphic APOE allele uing polymerae chain reaction on genomic DNA from venou blood leukocyte. Reult The prevalence of diabetic retinopathy and hard exudate wa 15.0% and 5.3% in Caucaian (n = 935), and 24.6% and 9.7% in African-American (n = 463), with type 2 diabete. APOE gene polymorphim were not aociated with diabetic retinopathy in either Caucaian or African-American. In African-American, the epilon (Poron)2/epilon (Poron)4 genotype (n = 6) wa aociated with increaed prevalence of hard exudate (odd ratio [OR] 4.10, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.30 to 12.90), a wa the epilon (Poron)2/epilon (Poron)3 genotype (n = 9, OR 2.64, 95% CI 1.01 to 6.95). No aociation between APOE genotype and hard exudate wa found in Caucaian. Concluion Thee data ugget that APOE gene polymorphim are not aociated with diabetic retinopathy in either Caucaian or African-American with type 2 diabete.