Apolipoprotein E allelic variants and cerebral palsy

Özet

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most frequent cause of mobility restriction andposture disturbance in childhood. Against the complexity in disease etiology,genetic factors, including Apolipoprotein E allelic distribution in this patientpopulation, are worthy targets for investigation. ApoE is a lipoprotein ofcentral nervous system encoded by ApoE gene with its 3 main co-dominantalleles, 2, 3 and 4. We aimed to evaluate the allelic frequencies of ApoE geneand its association with coexisting clinical entities such as vision and hearingimpairment, cognitive problems, seizures and MRI findings in a pediatricpatient population native to middle Anatolian region. Seventy-eight childrenwith CP and 60 healthy controls were genotyped. Genotypic variations alongwith coexisting clinical conditions and CP-related medical findings werecompared between the patient and control groups. The Denver DevelopmentalScreening Test for all, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV (shortform WISC-IV; Turkish version) for the patients >6y and the Stanford–BinetIntelligence Scale (SB-5) for those who aged 2-6 years old were employed toevaluate cognitive and mental abilities of the patients. ApoE 2 and 4 alleleswere more frequent in the patient group (p<0.05), whereas ApoE 3 allelewas more frequent in the healthy controls. ApoE 2/4 genotype has beendetermined 29% in the case group, but none in healthy control group. Inthe patient group with apolipoprotein 4 or 2 alleles, the rate of emergencycesarean section was found being significantly higher than the group with 3allele. Brain MRI findings were not significantly different among ApoE allelicvariants within the patient group. Our data show that the ApoE alleles maybe effective in the development of cerebral palsy and may be associated withsome clinical manifestations in those patients.