Abstract: BACKGROUND ＆ AIM: To explore the relationship between polymorphism of apolipoprotein E(ApoE) gene and the risk of Parkinson's disease(PD) in the population of Urumqi region. MATERIAL AND METHODS: PCR and RFLP were used to detect ApoE genotypes in 51 sporadic PD cases and 52 healthy elderly persons as controls. The whole PD patients were categorized as the PDD group and the PD group according to presence or absence of dementia . Association analysis was performed using χ2 test. RESULTS: Genotype frequencies of ApoE in PD＋PDD mixed group, PD group and PDD group did not differ significantly from that in controls(P>0.05). Allele frequency of ApoE in PD group was similar to that in controls. There were no differences in the frequencies of ε 2 and ε 3 alleles in PD＋PDD, PDD groups and controls. However, the frequencies of ε 4 allele in PD＋PDD and PDD groups(12.8 ％ and 16.7 ％, respectively) were obviously higher than that in controls, and the differences were statistically significant(P<0.05). CONCLUSION: ApoE ε 4 allele does not have a marked effect on the development of PD, but may be a genetic risk factor for dementia with PD in the patients studied.

Key words: Parkinson's disease, apolipoprotein E, gene, polymorphism