The Association Of Apolipoprotein E Gene Polymorphisms With Cerebral Palsy In Chinese Infants

Aim：Previous studies have suggested that there is an association between geneticvariants of apolipoprotein E (APOE) and susceptibility to cerebral palsy (CP). Thepurpose of this study was to explore whether the ApoE gene is involved in theetiology of CP in the Chinese population.Methods: In this study,350CP patients and242healthy control children wererecruited. Genomic DNA was prepared from venous blood and all five singlenucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ApoE (rs769446, rs405509, rs121918399,rs429358, and rs190853081) were detected by the MassARRAY platform-basedgenotyping approach. The SHEsis program was used to analyze the genotyping data,and we systemically analyzed the association of the ApoE SNPs with differentsubtypes of CP.Results: There were significant differences in allelic frequencies between the CPpatients and controls at rs769446(P=0.005, P=0.025after SNPSpD correction), aswell as between the CP patients with preterm birth (less than34gestational weeks)and controls at rs769446(P=0.001, P=0.005after SNPSpD correction). Ahaplotype consisting of the five SNPs rs769446(C), rs405509(C), rs121918399(C),rs429358(T), and rs190853081(G) was associated with a decreased risk of CP (P=0.002after Bonferroni correction). However, we found no significant association between any of the other four SNPs and CP based on different subgroup analysis.Conclusion: This study provides the first evidence that ApoE gene polymorphismsare a potential risk factor for CP in the Chinese population.