This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Services Download to citation manager PubMed PubMed Citation

Genetic Association Between USF 1 and USF 2 Gene Polymorphisms and Japanese Alzheimer's Disease

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
² Department of Neurology, Omiya Medical Center, Jichi Medical School, Saitama-shi, Japan.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Nagao Hospital, Kure-shi, Japan.

Address correspondence to Nobuto Shibata, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Juntendo University School of Medicine. 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8421 Japan. E-mail: nobuto.shibata{at}nifty.ne.jp

To investigate the effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the upstream stimulatory factor (USF) 1 and 2 genes on the onset of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a case–control study was performed. The SNPs were genotyped by a polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR–RFLP) method in 236 AD patients and 120 age-matched controls of Japanese descent. We observed no significant association between the three SNPs of the USF 1 gene and AD in our Japanese participants. In addition, the SNPs studied did not affect plasma cholesterol levels in our AD cases. For the USF 2 gene, the two SNPs did not show significant association with onset of AD. Our study suggests that the three SNPs of the USF 1 gene and two SNPs of the USF 2 gene presented here are not associated with onset of AD.