Apolipoprotein E serum concentration and polymorphism in six European countries: the ApoEurope Project

The ApoEurope group, collaborating centres, and their associated investigators: Portugal: Unidade de Química Clinica, Instituto Nacional de Saúde, Lisboa: Maria do Carmo Martins, Maria Odete Rodrigues, Maria Isabel Albergaria, Maria Liseta Alpendre As part of the ApoEurope Project, the apolipoprotein E (apo E) serum concentration and polymorphism were determined in 6934 healthy subjects aged 25-64 years recruited in six European countries: Finland; France; Greece; Northern Ireland; Portugal and Spain. Age and sex influenced apo E concentration with concentrations being significantly higher in men than in women for those aged between 25 and 44 years. The age effect differed between the sexes after the age of 44 years, displaying a linear increase in women and a plateau in men. As expected, the serum apo E concentration was highest in varepsilon2 carriers and lowest in varepsilon4 carriers in each country with a significantly higher frequency of the varepsilon4 allele in the northern regions. The main finding of this study was a clear increasing North-South gradient in serum apo E concentration independent of age, sex and apo E genotype. In subjects aged